Behavioral and Electrocortical Response to a Sensorimotor Conflict in Individuals with Fibromyalgia.

People with fibromyalgia have been shown to experience more somatosensory disturbances than pain-free controls during sensorimotor conflicts (i.e., incongruence between visual and somatosensory feedback).

Tactile Detection in Fibromyalgia: A Systematic Review and a Meta-Analysis.

Fibromyalgia is a chronic pain syndrome characterized by sensorimotor deficits and distortions of body representation, that could both be caused by alterations in sensory processing. Several studies suggest a hypersensitivity to various sensory stimulations in fibromyalgia but results on detection of both noxious and non-noxious tactile stimulation, which are particularly relevant for body representation and motor control, remain conflicting. Therefore, the aim of this study is to systematically review and quantify the detection thresholds to noxious and non-noxious tactile stimuli in individuals with fibromyalgia compared to pain-free controls.

Somatosensory deficits and neural correlates in cerebral palsy: a scoping review.

Aim: To synthetize studies assessing somatosensory deficits and alterations in cerebral responses evoked by somatosensory stimulation in individuals with cerebral palsy (CP) compared to typically developing individuals.

Method: A scoping review of the literature was performed in the MEDLINE, Embase, PsycInfo, CINAHL, Evidence-Based Medicine Reviews, and Web of Science databases (last search carried out on 6th and 7th August 2020) with a combination of keywords related to CP and somatosensory functions. Somatosensory deficits were measured with clinical tests and alterations in cerebral responses were measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging, electroencephalography, and magnetoencephalography.

Impact of Experimental Tonic Pain on Corrective Motor Responses to Mechanical Perturbations.

Movement is altered by pain, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Assessing corrective muscle responses following mechanical perturbations can help clarify these underlying mechanisms, as these responses involve spinal (short-latency response, 20-50 ms), transcortical (long-latency response, 50-100 ms), and cortical (early voluntary response, 100-150 ms) mechanisms. Pairing mechanical (proprioceptive) perturbations with different conditions of visual feedback can also offer insight into how pain impacts on sensorimotor integration.

Do nociceptive stimulation intensity and temporal predictability influence pain-induced corticospinal excitability modulation?

Temporal predictability and intensity of an impending nociceptive input both shape pain experience and modulate laser-evoked potentials (LEPs) amplitude. However, it remains unclear whether and how these two factors could influence pain-induced corticospinal excitability modulation. The current study investigated the influence of nociceptive stimulation intensity and temporal predictability on motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) modulation, in parallel to their effect on pain perception and LEPs amplitude.

The Contribution of Motor Commands to the Perturbations Induced by Sensorimotor Conflicts in Fibromyalgia.

Individuals with pain report higher sensory disturbances during sensorimotor conflicts compared to pain-free individuals. In the pain field, it is frequently assumed that disturbances arise from a discordance between sensory and efference copies (defined as sensory-motor conflict), while in the sensorimotor control field they are considered to result from the incongruence between sensory modalities (defined as sensory-sensory conflict). The general aim of this study was to disentangle the relative contribution of motor efferences and sensory afferences to the increased sensitivity to sensorimotor conflicts in individual with fibromyalgia (n = 20) compared to controls (n = 20).

Sensory disturbances induced by sensorimotor conflicts are higher in complex regional pain syndrome and fibromyalgia compared to arthritis and healthy people, and positively relate to pain intensity.

Background: Sensorimotor conflicts are well known to induce sensory disturbances. However, explanations as to why patients with chronic pain are more sensitive to sensorimotor conflicts remain elusive. The main objectives of this study were (a) to assess and compare the sensory disturbances induced by sensorimotor conflict in complex regional pain syndrome (n = 38), fibromyalgia (n = 36), arthritis (n = 34) as well as in healthy volunteers (HV) (n = 32); (b) to assess whether these disturbances were related to the intensity and duration of pain, or to other clinical variables assessed using questionnaires (abnormalities in sensory perception, depression and anxiety); and (c) to categorize different subgroups of conflict-induced sensory disturbances.

Motor and sensory disturbances induced by sensorimotor conflicts during passive and active movements in healthy participants.

Sensorimotor conflict induces both sensory and motor disturbances, but the specific factors playing a role in conflict-induced disturbances are still misunderstood. For example, we still do not know the role played by motor intention (vs. a purely visuo-proprioceptive conflict) or the influence of specific types of incongruent visual feedback.

Exploring the Relationships Between Altered Body Perception, Limb Position Sense, and Limb Movement Sense in Complex Regional Pain Syndrome.

Chronic pain is often accompanied by patient-reported distorted body perception and an altered kinesthesia (referring to the senses of limb position and limb movement), but the association between these deficits is unknown. The objectives of this study were to assess body perception and the senses of limb position and limb movement in complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) and to test whether these variables are related to each other and to pain intensity. Thirteen patients with upper limb CRPS (mean pain intensity, 4.

Sensory Disturbances, but Not Motor Disturbances, Induced by Sensorimotor Conflicts Are Increased in the Presence of Acute Pain.

Incongruence between our motor intention and the sensory feedback of the action (sensorimotor conflict) induces abnormalities in sensory perception in various chronic pain populations, and to a lesser extent in pain-free individuals. The aim of this study was to simultaneously investigate sensory and motor disturbances evoked by sensorimotor conflicts, as well as to assess how they are influenced by the presence of acute pain. It was hypothesized that both sensory and motor disturbances would be increased in presence of pain, which would suggest that pain makes body representations less robust.

The kinaesthetic mirror illusion: How much does the mirror matter?

The reflection of a moving hand in a mirror positioned in the sagittal plane can create an illusion of symmetrical, bimanual movement. This illusion is implicitly presumed to be of visual origin. However, muscle proprioceptive afferents of the arm reflected in the mirror might also affect the perceived position and movement of the other arm.

Kinaesthetic mirror illusion and spatial congruence.

Position sense and kinaesthesia are mainly derived from the integration of somaesthetic and visual afferents to form a single, coherent percept. However, visual information related to the body can play a dominant role in these perceptual processes in some circumstances, and notably in the mirror paradigm. The objective of the present study was to determine whether or not the kinaesthetic illusions experienced in the mirror paradigm obey one of the key rules of multisensory integration: spatial congruence.