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Experimental neck muscle pain impairs standing balance in humans

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Abstract

Impaired postural control has been reported in patients with chronic neck pain of both traumatic and non-traumatic etiologies, but whether painful stimulation of neck muscle per se can affect balance control during quiet standing in humans remains unclear. The purpose of the present experiment was thus to investigate the effect of experimental neck muscle pain on standing balance in young healthy adults. To achieve this goal, 16 male university students were asked to stand upright as still as possible on a force platform with their eyes closed in two conditions of No pain and Pain of the neck muscles elicited by experimental painful electrical stimulation. Postural control and postural performance were assessed by the displacements of the center of foot pressure (CoP) and of the center of mass (CoM), respectively. The results showed increased CoP and CoM displacements variance, range, mean velocity, and mean and median frequencies in the Pain relative to the No pain condition. The present findings emphasize the destabilizing effect of experimental neck muscle pain per se, and more largely stress the importance of intact neck neuromuscular function on standing balance.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the subject volunteers and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions on the first version of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculté de Médecine, Laboratoire TIMC-IMAG, UMR UJF CNRS 5525, 38706, La Tronche Cédex, France

    Nicolas Vuillerme & Nicolas Pinsault

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  1. Nicolas Vuillerme
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  2. Nicolas Pinsault
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Correspondence to Nicolas Vuillerme.

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Vuillerme, N., Pinsault, N. Experimental neck muscle pain impairs standing balance in humans. Exp Brain Res 192, 723–729 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-008-1639-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-008-1639-7

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