Research Articles

Research Articles

Research Articles

Here we have put together some interesting articles, research & resources that we hope will be useful, please let us know via our contact form below if you have some interesting articles you think we could share.

RESEARCH ARTICLE – The Effects of the Emotional Stress Release Technique on Cardiac Parameters

This pilot experiment was carried out to see if holding your forehead known as the emotional stress release (ESR) technique has an effect on cardiac parameters during times of stress.

Please click here to read the complete paper.

RESEARCH ARTICLE – Estimating the accuracy of muscle response

Testing: Two randomised-order blinded Studies

Anne M. Jensen1,2*, Richard J. Stevens1,2 and Amanda J. Burls 3 Abstract Background:

Manual muscle testing (MMT) is a non-invasive assessment tool used by a variety of health care providers to evaluate neuromusculoskeletal integrity, and muscular strength in particular. In one form of MMT called muscle response testing (MRT), muscles are said to be tested, not to evaluate muscular strength, but neural control. One established, but insufficiently validated, application of MRT is to assess a patient’s response to semantic stimuli (e.g. spoken lies) during a therapy session. Our primary aim was to estimate the accuracy of MRT to distinguish false from true spoken statements, in randomised and blinded experiments. A secondary aim was to compare MRT accuracy to the accuracy when practitioners used only their intuition to differentiate false from true spoken statements.

Please click here to read the complete paper.

RESEARCH ARTICLE – Estimating the prevalence of use of kinesiology-style manual muscle testing : A survey of educators

Anne M. Jensen

Manual muscle testing (MMT) is a non-invasive assessment method used by a variety of manual therapists to evaluate neuromusculoskeletal integrity. Goodheart developed a technique, Applied Kinesiology, where muscles are tested, not to evaluate muscular strength, but neural control.
Following Goodheart’s work, a third type of MMT emerged, often referred to colloquially as ‘‘muscle testing’’ or ‘‘kinesiology.’’ This type of muscle testing, kinesiology-style MMT (kMMT) typically only uses one muscle, tested repeatedly, to scan for the presence of target conditions, such as stress or food
allergies. While AK-MMT has been found to be used by approximately 40% of American chiropractors, little is known about the prevalence of use of kMMT. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of use of kinesiology-style manual muscle testing (kMMT).

Please click here to read the complete paper.

RESEARCH ARTICLE – The Impact of Using Emotionally Arousing Stimuli on Muscle Response Testing Accuracy

Anne M. Jensen a Richard J. Stevens b Amanda J. Burls c

Muscle response testing (MRT) is an assess-ment method used by 1 million practitioners worldwide, yet its usefulness remains uncertain. The aim of this study, one in a series assessing the accuracy of MRT, was to determine whether emotionally arousing stimuli influence its accuracy compared to neutral stimuli. Methods: To assess diagnostic test accuracy 20 MRT practitioners were paired with 20 test patients (TPs). Forty MRTs were performed as TPs made true and false statements about emotionally arousing and neu-tral pictures. Blocks of MRT alternated with blocks of intui- tive guessing (IG). Results: MRT accuracy using emotionally arousing stimuli was different than when using neutral stim-uli. However, MRT accuracy was found to be significantly better than IG and chance. Similar to previous studies in this series, this study failed to detect any characteristic that con-sistently influenced MRT accuracy.

Please click here to read the complete paper.

RESEARCH ARTICLE – The Clinical Utility of Force/Displacement Analysis of Muscle Testing In Applied Kinesiology

William Caruso & Gerald Leisman

Manual muscle testing procedures are the subject of a force and displacement analysis. Equipment was fabricated, tested, and employed to gather force, displacement, and time data for examining muscle test parameters as practiced by applied kinesiology (A.K.} clinicians. Simple mathematical procedur~s are used to process the data in an effort to find potential patterns of force and displacement which would correspond to the testing of strong and weak muscles on healthy subjects. Particular attention is paid to the lead-ing edge of the force pulses, as most clinjcians report that they derive most of their as-sessment from the initial thrust imparted on the patient’s limb. An analysis of the simple linear regression of the slope of the leading edge of a force pulse reveals that a high dx/dF is indicative of a weak muscle test result (as perceived by the tester), and a low dx/dF is indicative of a strong muscle test. Thresholds for dxfdF are determined to discriminate between inhibited and facilitated muscle test results. The data lay the groundwork for future studies that examine the objectivity of A.K. muscle testing.

Please click here to read the complete paper.

RESEARCH ARTICLE – A CHALLENGE OF APPLIED KINESIOLOGY (AK) THEORIES: NEUROPHYSIOLOGIC EVENTS ON UPPER LIMBS MUSCLES RELATED TO THE STIMULATION OF ACUPOINTS LOCATED ON THE FOOT

Dott. Sergio Veneziani, Prof.ssa Stefania Fulle & Prof. Giorgio Fanò-Illic

Increased life expectancy and a challenging environment coincide with an also increased prevalence of chronic diseases affecting extensively both quality of life and health care’s costs in western society. Modification of the motor system in a variety of these ailments has emerged as a topic of growing importance. Accordingly, muscle’s activity and neurologically driven muscle’s activation have become a focal point of both clinical and research interests and it is hypothesized that complementary medical methods like acupuncture and manual therapies, may have a role in promoting those profound and dynamic medical progresses required to manage effectively such challenges (3). Many of these methods lack of scientific evidence to date. Among these, Applied Kinesiology (AK) is diffused worldwide and gather professionals in the field of medicine, chiropractice, dentistry, psicology, clinical nutrition and ostheopaty. AK theories relate manual muscle testing to an expanded view of the significance of muscle tone. Hence a rigorous description of the neurophysiologic phenomena in a controlled experimental setting investigation may, whether not, support the validity of the arguments of those advocating the adoption of methods like outlined above. Various somatosensory stimuli have demonstrated to affect the excitability of motor pathways (1). The effect of acupuncture in its specificity has been previously investigated by means of changes in motor evoked potentials and brain plasticity through trans-cranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) (7). The effects related to acupoints’ activation are apparently specific and different from those evoked by a similar somatosensory stimuli on a “non-acupoint”. In Applied Kinesiology’s procedures the activation of specific acupoints (meridian’s sedation point) is reported to gain a relative reduction of muscle tone as perceived manually according to specific muscle-meridian association (8,9,11). These variations seem to be different from the effects of fatigue or task repetition (5) on muscle function and EMG tracings.

Please click here to read the complete paper.

RESEARCH ARTICLE – Investigating the validity of muscle response testing: Blinding the patient using subliminal visual stimuli

Anne M. Jensen, Richard J. Stevens, Amanda J. Burls

Muscle Response Testing (MRT) is used by over 1 million people worldwide, most commonly within the ﬁeld of complementary and alternative medicine. MRT has been shown to accurately detect lies using verbal statements in test patients who were not blind to the verity of the statements they were speaking. In clinical practice, MRT is routinely used to detect “nonconscious beliefs” and to elicit information about a patient of which the patient is not conscious. Nonconscious beliefs, for example, in the form of prejudice, do indeed exist.

Please click here to read the complete paper.

RESEARCH ARTICLE – The accuracy and precision of kinesiology-style manual muscle testing: designing and implementing a series of diagnostic test accuracy studies

Anne M. Jensen, Richard J. Stevens, Amanda J. Burls

Kinesiology-style manual muscle testing (kMMT) is a non-invasive assessment method used by various types of practitioners to detect a wide range of target conditions. It is distinctly different from the muscle testing performed in orthopaedic/neurological settings and from Applied kinesiology. Despite being estimated to be used by over 1 million people worldwide, the usefulness of kMMT has not yet been established. The aim of this thesis was to assess the validity of kMMT by examining its accuracy and precision.

Please click here to read the complete paper.

RESEARCH ARTICLE – Scientific Validation of the Mind / Body Paradigm & Muscle Testing

DANIEL A. MONTI, JOHN SINNOTT, MARC MARCHESE, ELISABETH J. S. KUNKEL, JEFFREY M. GREESON

This study investigated differences in values of manual muscle tests after exposure to congruent and incongruent semantic stimuli. Muscle te~ting with a computerized dynamometer was performed on the deltoid muscle group of 89 healthy college students after «!petitions of congruent (true) and incongruent (false) self-referential statements. The order in which statements were repeated was controlled by a counterbalanced design. The combined data showed that approximately 17% more total force over :1 longer period of time could he endured when subjects repeated semantically congruent statements (p < .001). Order effects were not significant. Overall, significant differences were found in muscle test responses between congruent and incongruent semantic stimuli. Please click here to read the complete paper.

RESEARCH ARTICLE – Estimating the accuracy of muscle response testing: two randomised-order blinded studies

Anne M. Jensen , Richard J. Stevens and Amanda J.Burls

Please click here to read the complete paper.

RESEARCH ARTICLE – Muscle testing for lie detection : Grip strength dynamometry is inadequate

Anne M. Jensen , Richard J. Stevens and Amanda J.Burls

Although DMT is primarily used in the diagnosis of neuromusculoskeletal (NMS) disorders, previous studies have attempted to use other forms of manual muscle testing (MMT) to detect conditions other than NMS. For instance, muscle response testing (MRT) was used to distinguish lies (a known stressor) from truth. Therefore,it is hypothesised that DMT might be used to detect deceit as well, and the aim of this study was to investigate if gripstrength via dynamometric muscle testing (DMT) could be used to distinguish lies from truth.

Please click here to read the complete paper.

RESEARCH ARTICLE – Emerging from the Mystical: Rethinking Muscle Response Testing as an Ideomotor Effect

Anne M. Jensen

Muscle Response Testing (MRT) is an assessment tool estimated to be used by over one million people worldwide, mainly in the fieldof alternative health care. During a test, a practitioner applies a force on a patient’s iso-metrically contracted muscle for the purpose of gaining information about the patient in order to guide care. The practitioner notes the patient’s ability or inability to resist the force and inter-prets the outcome according to predetermined criteria. Though recent research supports the validity of MRT, little is known about its mech-anism of action. Nevertheless, its causation is often attributed to an ideomotor effect, which can be defined as muscular activity, potentially nonconscious, and seemingly brought about by a third-party operator. Accordingly, the aim of this study is to investigate whether the ideomo-tor effect is a plausible explanation of action for MRT.

Please click here to read the complete paper.

RESEARCH ARTICLE – Developmental kinesiology : Three levels of motor control in the assessment and treatment of the motor system

Alena Kobesova & Pavel Kolar

Three levels of sensorimotor control within the central nervous system (CNS) can be distinguished. During the neonatal stage, general movements and primitive reflexes are controlled at the spinal and brain stem levels. Analysis of the newborn’s spontaneous general movements and the assessment of primitive reflexes is crucial in the screening and early recognition of a risk of abnormal development.

Please click here to read the complete paper.

RESEARCH ARTICLE – Applied kinesiology methods for a 10-year-old child with headaches, neck pain, asthma, and reading disabilities

Scott Cuthbert Anthony Rosner

The purpose of this case report is to describe the chiropractic care of a 10-year old boy who presented with developmental delay syndromes, asthma, and chronic neck and head pain and to present an overview of his muscular imbalances during manual muscle testing evaluation that guided the interventions offered to this child.

Please click here to read the complete paper.

RESEARCH ARTICLE – A DOUBLE-BLIND, RANDOMIZED STUDY TO ASSESS THE VALIDITY OF APPLIED KINESIOLOGY (AK) AS A DIAGNOSTIC TOOL AND AS A NONLOCAL PROXIMITY EFFECT

Stephan A. Schwartz Jessica Utts, James P. Spottiswoode Christopher W. Shade Lisa Tully , William F. Morris, and Ginette Nachman

Applied Kinesiology (AK) is a diagnostic technique widely used within the Integrative Medical community. In essence, it posits that a question can be mentally held in a person’s mind, sometimes while they are holding a substance like a vitamin, or a food sample, and by measuring relative muscular weakness an answer as to whether the substance or the condition represented by the question is good for that person can be obtained. This AK is presumed to have a diagnostic capability. That being presumed, this study asks the following questions:(1)Is the re a difference in muscular strength when an individual holds a substance that is inimical to life processes (a poison solution), as compared to a substance that is essential for life (normal saline)?(2)Is this effect a transaction involving input from both the person being measured and the kinesiologist doing the measurement or is it only the person being measured? (3)As an extension of question 2,is the result the same when different kinesiologists take the measurement or when no kinesiologist is involved? (4) Does belief, expectation, gender, or time cognition play a role in determining response?

Please click here to read the complete paper.

RESEARCH ARTICLE – Estimating the accuracy of muscle response testing: two randomised-order blinded studies -German Version

Anne M. Jensen , Richard J. Stevens and Amanda J.Burls

In den vorliegenden Studien wurde untersucht, ob man durch Anwendung des Muskeltests eine Luge von der Wahrheit unterscheiden kann. Der Patient traf hierzu eine wahre oder unwahre Aussage, woraufhin der Fachausubende den Muskeltest durchfUhrte. Eine schwache Muskelreaktion wies dabei auf eine Luge, ein stark bleibender Muskel auf eine wahre Aussage hin. Am Ende wurde ausgewertet, wie oft der Fachausubende eine Luge oder eine wahre Aussage durch den Muskeltest korrekt identifizierte. Verglichen wurde er auBerdem mit der Zufallswahrscheinlichkeit von 50% (Luge/Wahrheit) und einigen Versuchsblocken, in denen der Fachausubende den Muskeltest nicht ausfuhrte, sondern sich auf seine Intuition verlieB und so riet, ob der Patient die Wahrheit sagte oder nicht.

Please click here to read the complete paper.