The Japanese Journal of Psychology 1989, Vol. 60, No. 4, 209-215 Changes of body sensation through muscular relaxation: Using the method of measuring tactile two-point lien Yoshitaka Konno (Faculty of Education, Bunkyo University, Koshigaya, Saitaa 343) The purpose of this study was to explore changes in body sensation through muscular relaxa tion by means of measurement of tactile two-point limen. This study comprised two experiments The first experiment, in which twenty female college students participated, was carried out to examine the effect of relaxation on two point limen, and the relationship between the acceptance of relaxation and two-point limen. The second experiment involved three physically handicapped children with cerebral palsy and hemiplegia. To determine whether they would show a decrease in two-point limen in the shoulders and forearms as a function of improvement of relaxation, they were given a week long intensive Motor Action Training, which was administered by means of the relaxation and movement training method established by Naruse. The results showed that the two-point limen decreased remarkably for both normal adult subjects and physically handicapped subjects as they relaxed muscular tension. Concerning the acceptance of relaxation, the high acceptance group showed a large decrease in the two-point limen, whereas the low acceptance group did not show any change. Key words: relaxation, body sensation, two-point limen, physically handicapped children, accept ance of relaxation.
Table 1 Comparison of tow-point limen (mm) between down and up series when a right shoulder was assigned to experimental condition Table 2 Comparison of tow-point limen (mm) between down and up series when a left shoulder was assigned to experimental condition Fig. 1. Comparison of two-point limen(mm) between experimental condition and control condi tion for right and left shoulder.
Fig. 2. Comparison of two-point limen(mm) between high and low acceptance group for relaxa tion.
Fig. 3. Changes of two-point linen with relaxation in Subject J. N. Fig. 4. Changes of two-point linien with relaxation in Subject H. O. Fig. 5, Changes of two-point limen with relaxation in Subject T, O.
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