Effect of movement-evoked and tonic experimental pain on muscle force production

Hélio V Cabral, Valter Devecchi, Chelsea Oxendale, Ned Jenkinson, Deborah Falla, Alessio Gallina*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

45 Downloads (Pure)

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.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-13
Number of pages13
JournalScandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports
Early online date6 Oct 2023
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 6 Oct 2023

Bibliographical note

© 2023 The Authors. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science In Sports published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Keywords

  • electrical stimulation
  • knee
  • motor adaptation
  • pain
  • torque

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Effect of movement-evoked and tonic experimental pain on muscle force production'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this