Complexity and Entropy of Knee Kinematics in a Joint Reposition Test: Effect of Strapping and Kinesiology Taping

Proprioception plays an important role in neuromuscular control and stability. Taping the knee or ankle with strapping tape (ST) is a common means to increase stability and limit unwanted joint motion. Kinesiology tape (KT) is an alternative tape has been proposed to enhance proprioceptive information from the skin muscles and joints. Comparisons of muscle responses associated with different taping methods has not been investigated using a joint reposition test (JRT). The current study investigated lower limb muscle activity during a blind folded JRT in a group of college students with no known injuries. Thirty nine healthy college students between 18-35 years of age were recruited using convenience sampling. Electromyographical (EMG) data was recorded from lower limb muscles and 3D video recordings tracked knee joint angle accuracy for the JRT. Participants were blindfolded and guided to 40 degrees of knee flexion by the experimenter, and were asked to repeat this joint position five times unaided. Higuchi fractal dimension and sample entropy were used to determine the nonlinear dynamic properties of the muscle responses. Statistical analysis was with repeated measures ANOVA and Tukey post hoc test. Significance was set at p<0.05. The results indicated that ST led to higher complexity and randomness of muscle activity, compared to KT. These results correlated with the absolute error associated with the JRT, where KT was significantly lower with a lower standard deviation. Higher complexity and randomness may indicate compromised muscle activity due to loss of proprioceptive information and decreased sensorimotor effectiveness.