WEIGHT DISCRIMINATION DISTURBANCES IN WEIGHT-LIFTERS

We attempted to describe and compare the accuracy of weight discrimina tion in a sample of 37 competitive level male weight-lifters and a mat ched sample of male undergraduate university students without weight-l ifting experience. This investigation also considered the relative con tributions of cutaneous information on the ability to discriminate wei ght. The subjects performed a weight discrimination test while blindfo lded. Weight-lifters were deficient in their ability to discriminate w eight (p < 0.001). It is suggested that the differences in sensitivity observed between the two experimental groups were due to the defectiv e ability of the weight-lifters to encode, through their cutaneous sen sory receptors, the intensity of the sensation of heaviness of the lif ted weights. As a result, the message of nerve impulses entering their nervous system evoked a perception or conscious experience of a sensa tion of heaviness, in their cerebral cortex, which was not correlated quantitatively with the precise intensity of the sensation of heavines s of the lifted weights. The relative contributions of these findings to motor skill acquisition are discussed.