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Chiropractic & the Senses

Chiropractic care can improve reflexes, proprioception, and other senses by restoring efficient brain–body communication. Below, we explain how precise spinal adjustments stimulate mechanoreceptors, refine afferent and efferent signaling, and rebalance the autonomic nervous system to optimize cortical resources and energy use. 

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Chiropractic Care and the Senses: Reflexes, Proprioception, and Nervous System Function

Chiropractic care is fundamentally about optimizing the nervous system. While it’s often known for relieving back or neck pain, its deeper influence extends to our senses and neurological function – including reflexes, proprioception (the sense of body position), and overall sensory-motor integration. By correcting spinal subluxations, chiropractic adjustments improve the communication between the body and brain. This leads to positive changes in how we perceive our body through receptors in skin, muscles, and joints, how our reflexes respond, and how balanced our autonomic nervous system is. In this research paper, we will explore research-backed ways that chiropractic care regulates the nervous system’s tone for better health, performance, and feel.

Chiropractic Impact on Reflexes and Motor Control

Chiropractic adjustments can produce notable improvements in reflexes and motor output. Multiple studies demonstrate that chiropractic alters central neural function and even increases the strength output of muscles mdpi.com. In fact, a single chiropractic adjustment has been shown to immediately boost muscle performance in several populations – one session increased calf muscle strength in college students, in elite athletes, and in stroke survivors mdpi.com. These rapid gains in strength suggest enhanced motor unit activation and better reflex control, likely driven by changes in the nervous system rather than muscle tissue alone. Research indicates that spinal adjustments modulate reflex excitability in the spinal cord, helping normalize overly sluggish or overly sensitive reflex responses mdpi.com. Patients often exhibit faster reaction times and improved limb coordination after an adjustment mdpi.com. For example, one study using a mental rotation reaction time test found that processing speed in the brain improved following an upper cervical adjustment mdpi.com. By removing interference in neural pathways, chiropractic care allows the body’s reflex circuits to function at their best – meaning signals travel faster and with appropriate intensity. This can translate into quicker reflexes (important for injury prevention and performance) and smoother, more controlled movements. In short, chiropractic adjustments help “tune” the motor control system for accuracy and efficiency, from simple reflexes all the way up to complex coordinated actions mdpi.com.

Enhancing Proprioception and Coordination

Proprioception, our brain’s awareness of joint position and movement, is critical for balance and coordination. Chiropractic care has been shown to sharpen proprioceptive sense and thus improve stability. In a randomized controlled trial on older adults, 12 weeks of chiropractic adjustments led to significant improvements in proprioceptive accuracy and functional movement. Participants receiving care had better ankle joint position sense (i.e. they could sense foot placement more accurately) compared to a control group pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Notably, these seniors also improved in coordination tests – their choice stepping reaction time (a measure of how quickly one can initiate a step to regain balance) became 119 milliseconds faster on average after chiropractic care pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Improved reaction time and proprioception together imply a reduced risk of falls and better overall balance. The same study found that chiropractic patients showed enhanced multisensory integration – evidenced by a 13.5% improvement in the sound-induced flash illusion test (a test of how the brain combines visual and auditory signals) pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. This means their brains were more accurately processing simultaneous sensory inputs after care, an indicator of a finely tuned nervous system.

Even in younger populations, proprioception benefits from chiropractic adjustments occur. People with subtle neck issues, sometimes called subclinical neck pain, often have impaired joint position sense. One experiment showed that such individuals had significantly more error when trying to reproduce a specific arm position, compared to people without neck pain pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. After a chiropractic adjustment to the cervical spine, those with neck dysfunction experienced a notable improvement in elbow joint position sense accuracy pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. In practical terms, their brains could better perceive limb positioning after the spinal misalignment was corrected. The control group (who just rested) showed no such improvement – in fact, their accuracy slightly worsened pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. This suggests the act of the adjustment, not just time or practice, drove the proprioceptive gains. Other studies have similarly reported better postural control and balance following chiropractic, attributed to enhanced sensory feedback from the aligned spine mdpi.com. By restoring proper movement in spinal joints, chiropractic care stimulates the receptors responsible for proprioception and “recalibrates” the body’s sense of where it is in space. As a result, patients often report feeling more balanced, coordinated, and sure-footed after regular chiropractic care – outcomes that are supported by these objective improvements in proprioceptive tests and functional balance measures.

Stimulating Sensory Receptors and Afferent Pathways

How exactly do spinal adjustments lead to such neurological improvements? A big part of the answer lies in the stimulation of sensory receptors (afferents) in the skin, muscles, and joints. During a chiropractic adjustment, the quick, precise thrust generates a burst of sensory input from mechanoreceptors – including muscle spindles, Golgi tendon organs, and joint capsule receptors – in the affected area maltezopoulos.com. For example, a classic hypothesis by Korr (and later supported by experiments) is that a high-velocity, low-amplitude adjustment rapidly stretches deep paraspinal muscles, causing a surge of activity in muscle spindle afferents (the nerve fibers that report muscle length and movement) maltezopoulos.com. This barrage of sensory impulses travels to the spinal cord and brain, effectively “resetting” abnormal signals along the way. In particular, the influx of proprioceptive input can decrease excessive reflex muscle tone and inhibit pain pathways by stimulating inhibitory interneurons in the spinal cord maltezopoulos.com. In other words, if a segment of the spine was sending faulty or noisy signals (often due to joint fixation or inflammation), the adjustment provides a healthy blast of afferent information that overrides the noise and normalizes the communication.

Laboratory studies recording nerve activity lend support to this mechanism. In animal models, researchers have directly measured how spinal adjustments affect nerve firing: they found that an adjustment alters the discharge patterns of both Group I and Group II afferents in the spinal muscles maltezopoulos.com. These groups include the large diameter fibers from muscle spindles and Golgi tendon organs. Essentially, the adjustment excited these proprioceptive neurons in a controlled way. The result of such afferent stimulation is a host of beneficial reflex responses – including relaxation of tight muscles (via reflex inhibition) and pain reduction through gating mechanisms in the spinal cord. Chiropractic adjustments also stimulate cutaneous (skin) receptors and joint mechanoreceptors which send signals up the dorsal columns and spinocerebellar tracts of the spinal cord, further informing the brain about body position and movement. By increasing the frequency and accuracy of positive sensory feedback and quieting down nociceptive (pain) inputs, chiropractic refines the body’s sensory map. This leads to more appropriate efferent output: muscles receive clearer commands, reflexes are properly modulated, and one’s overall movement becomes more fluid and protected. In summary, the chiropractic adjustment speaks to the nervous system in its own language – the language of mechanical receptor signals – to improve how the body perceives and responds to internal and external stimuli.

Balancing the Autonomic Nervous System (Sympathetic vs. Parasympathetic)

Chiropractic’s influence isn’t limited to conscious sensations and motor control; it also extends to the autonomic nervous system (ANS), which governs involuntary body functions. Many people today live in a state of sympathetic overdrive, the “fight or flight” stress response, which can dampen digestive, immune, and regenerative functions governed by the parasympathetic side. Chiropractic care has been found to help rebalance this equation by reducing sympathetic tone and enhancing parasympathetic activity. One way researchers measure autonomic balance is through Heart Rate Variability (HRV), which analyzes the variations in time between heartbeats. Higher HRV generally corresponds to greater parasympathetic (calming) influence. In a multicenter clinical study, Dr. John Zhang and colleagues observed significant HRV changes immediately after a single chiropractic adjustment pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Patients had a decrease in resting heart rate and an increase in HRV parameters, notably an increase in high-frequency HRV power (associated with parasympathetic nervous system activity) and in total power of HRV, after their adjustment pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. These physiological changes were accompanied by a meaningful drop in pain scores reported by the patients pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. After chiropractic care, the patients were more relaxed (lower heart rate, more vagus nerve activity) and hurting less – a strong indication that the body had shifted toward a rest-and-healing state rather than fight-or-flight. Importantly, a subset of patients in that study who received ongoing care over 4 weeks maintained better HRV and continued to report less pain, suggesting that regular adjustments can sustain a healthier autonomic balance over time pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.

Real-world clinical outcomes also point to autonomic benefits of chiropractic. A remarkable pilot study published in the Journal of Human Hypertension found that a single precise adjustment of the C1 vertebra (atlas) in hypertensive patients led to a substantial reduction in blood pressure uchicagomedicine.org. In this study, 50 patients with high blood pressure and atlas misalignments were divided into an adjustment group and a sham (fake adjustment) group. Those who received the real atlas correction saw their blood pressure drop by an average of 17 mmHg (systolic) and 10 mmHg (diastolic) – equivalent to the effect of two blood-pressure medications given together. The control group saw no significant change uchicagomedicine.org. This blood pressure improvement persisted for at least 8 weeks after just the one adjustment uchicagomedicine.org. Such a finding underscores how closely the spine and autonomic functions are linked. Reducing stress on the brainstem and upper cervical spinal cord allowed better regulation of blood pressure via the autonomic nervous system. Chiropractic practitioners often observe ancillary improvements in patients like better digestion, improved sleep quality, and normalized blood pressure, etc. which make sense in light of these studies. By calming excessive sympathetic drive and promoting parasympathetic activity, chiropractic adjustments help bring the body back to homeostasis, where healing and normal function can occur. This balanced autonomic “tone” is associated with lower inflammation, better organ function, and an overall state of relaxation and recovery.

Neuroplastic Changes: Brain Integration and Neural Pathways

Modern neurophysiological research is revealing that chiropractic care can induce measurable changes in the brain essentially promoting neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to reorganize and adapt. Imaging studies and EEG measurements before and after spinal adjustments show that chiropractic has a direct impact on neural activity in the cortex and cerebellum. For instance, using somatosensory evoked potentials and transcranial magnetic stimulation, scientists have detected changes in the primary somatosensory cortex and primary motor cortex following chiropractic adjustments mdpi.com. These changes indicate that the brain is processing sensory inputs more efficiently after the intervention. Additionally, source-localized EEG studies have demonstrated altered activity in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and cerebellum post-adjustmentmdpi.commdpi.com. Why are those areas important? The prefrontal cortex is the command center for executive functions, attention, and emotional modulation, while the cerebellum is key for coordinating movement and integrating sensory information. Improvements in these brain regions can translate to a host of positive outcomes. In fact, better function in the PFC and cerebellum could explain many clinical benefits seen with chiropractic – such as enhanced joint position sense, improved reflexes and reaction time, and even reduced pain perception and better moodmdpi.commdpi.com. One study noted that after 12 weeks of chiropractic care, patients with chronic pain had improved integration of information in the brain and changes in EEG patterns consistent with healthier cortical processingmdpi.com. Another trial using fMRI found that spinal manipulation altered functional connectivity within brain networks that process pain, essentially changing how the brain ‘talks’ between regions when processing chronic pain signalsmdpi.com. These neuroplastic effects suggest that chiropractic care doesn’t just treat local joints – it updates the software of the nervous system at the highest levels.

Patients often report feeling “clear-headed” or more mentally focused after an adjustment, and this makes sense when you consider that chiropractic can affect the prefrontal cortex. By removing subluxation stress, the brain may be freed from dealing with constant erroneous signals, allowing you to think and move with greater ease. Some studies have even tied chiropractic adjustments to improvements in cognitive tasks or cortical screen tasksmdpi.com. Additionally, improvements in sensorimotor integration mean the brain’s map of the body is more accurate – what some researchers call an improved “body schema”mdpi.com. Overall, these findings highlight that chiropractic care engages the whole nervous system, from the spinal cord to the brain, encouraging more optimal patterns of activity. In a sense, adjusting the spine can help free up cortical “real estate” by alleviating the burden of maladaptive signals. The metabolic energy the brain once spent compensating for misalignment, pain, or faulty feedback can now be redirected to normal functioning and higher-order tasks. This comprehensive neural optimization – influencing sensory pathways, motor control circuits, and autonomic centers – is what makes chiropractic a unique approach to improving human performance and well-being.

Neurological Theories: Spinal Cord Tension and Nervous System Tone

Chiropractic was founded on the principle of nerve tone. As D.D. Palmer, the founder of chiropractic, wrote in 1910: “Life is the expression of tone… Tone is the normal degree of nerve tension... the cause of disease is any variation of tone – nerves too tense or too slack.”torquerelease.com.au. In essence, optimal health requires that the nervous system not be over-excited or stretched (hypertonicity), nor under-stimulated (hypotonicity). This idea of correct tone ties together the sensory, motor, and autonomic aspects discussed above – it’s about finding a balance where the nervous system is responsive but not overactive, relaxed but not sluggish. Chiropractic adjustments seek to restore this proper tone by removing sources of irritation or pressure on the nervous system (subluxations) that disturb its equilibrium.

One of the biomechanical theories that illustrate how a misaligned spine could disrupt nerve tone is the dentate ligament-cord distortion hypothesis. The upper cervical spine (the atlas and axis at the top of the neck) has strong ligamentous connections (dentate ligaments) anchoring the spinal cord to the spinal canal. If the atlas is misaligned even slightly, those ligaments can pull on the spinal cord. The hypothesis, initially proposed by Dr. Grostic and colleagues, suggests that such misalignments place mechanical tension on the cord and brainstem, potentially disturbing the function of spinal tracts that extend down the entire length of the cord. This is supported by neurosurgical insights: in 1978, neurosurgeon Alf Breig coined the term Adverse Mechanical Cord Tension (AMCT) to describe how stretching or tethering of the central nervous system can affect its physiologytorquerelease.com.au. Breig emphasized that the spinal cord is a continuous structure – tension applied at one end (for example, in the neck) can be transmitted throughout the cordtorquerelease.com.au. In practical terms, a forward head posture or an upper neck misalignment might create a slight but continuous traction on the cord, which could alter nerve signaling or blood flow. Chiropractic adjustments, especially upper cervical specific techniques, aim to correct these misalignments and thereby relieve tension on the cord. By doing so, any interference in nerve transmission caused by that tension may be eliminated, allowing the nervous system to regain its normal tone.

The concept of cord tension and nerve tone helps explain why chiropractic adjustments can have far-reaching effects. A spinal subluxation at one level might not just cause local pain; it could also manifest as distant symptoms (for example, tingling in the extremities or even functional issues in organs) due to distortion in neural signals. By correcting the subluxation, chiropractors remove the source of adverse tension or pressure, letting the nervous system reset to a more neutral state. Think of it like tuning a guitar string: too tight or too loose and the music will sound off. Chiropractors adjust the “tension” on the nervous system strings so they can play in harmony. This restoration of proper tone is observed clinically as improvements in reflexes, easier breathing, better digestion, improved mood – the body systems start to work in concert once the nervous system is free of stress. In summary, the classical chiropractic notion of “tone” finds support in contemporary science: chiropractic care helps normalize nerve tone by alleviating mechanical stress on the nervous system, allowing the entire network of afferent and efferent pathways to function optimallytorquerelease.com.au. A nervous system in tune is the foundation for robust senses, coordinated movement, and overall health.

Key Takeaways: Chiropractic care positively influences the nervous system in many dimensions. Reflexes can become faster and more appropriate, as spinal adjustments improve spinal cord excitability and motor controlmdpi.com. Proprioception and balance often improve, with research showing better joint position sense and stability after chiropractic interventionspubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.govpubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. These changes stem from enhanced sensory receptor feedback and sensorimotor integration in the brain. Chiropractic adjustments also help regulate the autonomic nervous system, reducing excessive sympathetic stress responses and promoting parasympathetic, healing functions (e.g. demonstrated by increased HRV and even lowered blood pressure)pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.govuchicagomedicine.org. At the cortical level, chiropractic care induces neuroplastic changes, activating regions like the prefrontal cortex and cerebellum that are crucial for perception, coordination, and emotional well-beingmdpi.commdpi.com. Additionally, chiropractic’s focus on spinal alignment relieves adverse mechanical tension in the nervous system, a fact backed by neurological theories and evidence of improved nerve function when such tension is removedtorquerelease.com.au. All these findings point to one conclusion: by optimizing nervous system tone and communication, chiropractic care helps you perceive your environment better, move with greater confidence, and live in a state of improved neurological balance. The nervous system is the “master control” of the body – and chiropractic adjustments ensure that this control system is operating free of interference, so you can function at your best.

Sources:

  1. Haavik, H. et al. (2023). Neuroplastic Responses to Chiropractic Care: Broad Impacts on Pain, Mood, Sleep, and Quality of Life. Brain Sciences, 14(11), 1124. mdpi.commdpi.com

  2. Holt, K. et al. (2016). Effectiveness of Chiropractic Care to Improve Sensorimotor Function Associated With Falls Risk in Older People: A Randomized Controlled Trial. J. Manipulative Physiol. Ther. 39(4): 267-278. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

  3. Haavik, H. & Murphy, B. (2011). Subclinical neck pain and the effects of cervical manipulation on elbow joint position sense. J. Manipulative Physiol. Ther. 34(2): 88-97. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

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  6. Pickar, J.G. (2002). Neurophysiological effects of spinal manipulation. Spine J. 2(5): 357-371. maltezopoulos.commaltezopoulos.com

  7. Di Duro, J. (2006). Improvement in hearing after chiropractic care: a case series. Chiropractic & Osteopathy 14:2. chiromt.biomedcentral.com

  8. Kelly, D.D. et al. (2000). Use of a mental rotation reaction-time paradigm to measure the effects of upper cervical adjustment on cortical processing: a pilot study. J. Manipulative Physiol. Ther. 23(4): 246-251. mdpi.com

  9. Palmer, D.D. (1910). The Science, Art and Philosophy of Chiropractic. Portland Printing House Co. (as cited in Hodgson, 2006). torquerelease.com.au

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