Manipulation of the body schema: Unilateral manual stimulation of lower extremity influences weight distribution in standing position

Clinical experience advocates sensory stimulation to increase the body sensation and adjust the body schema, which may be disturbed in some patients. Unilateral massage may affect the body midline orientation, but little evidence is available to support the effect of this practice.Twenty-one healthy young people participated in this experimental study. Two force plates measured weight distribution between the legs in standing position before and after unilateral manual stimulation of the lower extremities.Stimulation of the leg with initial least weight-bearing increased the load on this leg significantly from 48.2% to 49.0% and a similar but reverse effect was seen when stimulating the contra-lateral leg. When analysing the data with respect to stimulation of the non-dominant leg, the stimulation increased the weight-bearing on this leg from 49.6% to 51.3%.These findings indicate that external afferent stimuli may enhance the body perception and influence the body schema and midline orientation.