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Effect of movement‐evoked and tonic experimental pain on muscle force production
Cabral, Hélio V. Devecchi, Valter Oxendale, Chelsea Jenkinson, Ned Falla, Deborah Gallina, Alessio
Cabral, Hélio V.
Devecchi, Valter
Oxendale, Chelsea
Jenkinson, Ned
Falla, Deborah
Gallina, Alessio
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EPub Date
Publication Date
2023-10-06
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Article - VoR
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Abstract
Introduction: When performing an exercise or a functional test, pain that is evoked by movement or muscle contraction could be a stronger stimulus for changing how individuals move compared to tonic pain. We investigated whether the decrease in muscle force production is larger when experimentally‐induced knee pain is directly associated to the torque produced (movement‐evoked) compared to a constant painful stimulation (tonic). Methods: Twenty‐one participants performed three isometric knee extension maximal voluntary contractions without pain (baseline), during pain, and after pain. Knee pain was induced using sinusoidal electrical stimuli at 10 Hz over the infrapatellar fat pad, applied continuously or modulated proportionally to the knee extension torque. Peak torque and contraction duration were averaged across repetitions and normalized to baseline. Results: During tonic pain, participants reported lower pain intensity during the contraction than at rest (p < 0.001), whereas pain intensity increased with contraction during movement‐evoked pain (p < 0.001). Knee extension torque decreased during both pain conditions (p < 0.001), but a larger reduction was observed during movement‐evoked compared to tonic pain (p < 0.001). Participants produced torque for longer during tonic compared to movement‐evoked pain (p = 0.005). Conclusion: Our results indicate that movement‐evoked pain was a more potent stimulus to reduce knee extension torque than tonic pain. The longer contraction time observed during tonic pain may be a result of a lower perceived pain intensity during muscle contraction. Overall, our results suggest different motor adaptation to tonic and movement‐evoked pain and support the notion that motor adaptation to pain is a purposeful strategy to limit pain. This mechanistic evidence suggests that individuals experiencing prevalently tonic or movement‐evoked pain may exhibit different motor adaptations, which may be important for exercise prescription.
Citation
Cabral, H. V., Devecchi, V., Oxendale, C., Jenkinson, N., Falla, D., & Gallina, A. (2024). Effect of movement‐evoked and tonic experimental pain on muscle force production. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 34(1), article-number e14509. https://doi.org/10.1111/sms.14509
Publisher
Wiley
Journal
Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports
Research Unit
DOI
10.1111/sms.14509
PubMed ID
PubMed Central ID
Type
Article
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Description
Series/Report no.
ISSN
0905-7188
EISSN
1600-0838