Motor Imagery Performance and Tactile Spatial Acuity: Are They Altered in People with Frozen Shoulder?

Frozen shoulder (adhesive capsulitis) is a severe chronic pain condition that is not well understood and current treatment is suboptimal. In several other chronic pain conditions motor imagery and tactile acuity deficits are present, which are thought to represent associated neuroplastic changes. The aims of this study were to determine if motor imagery performance assessed by the left/right judgement task, and tactile acuity assessed by two-point discrimination, are altered in people with unilateral frozen shoulder.

Is implicit motor imagery altered in people with shoulder pain? The shoulder left/right judgement task.

Background: Implicit motor imagery performance is altered in a variety of chronic pain conditions, but it is not known whether this is the case in shoulder pain.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess implicit motor imagery performance, using a valid and reliable shoulder left/right judgement task in people with shoulder pain.

Design: Cross-sectional observational study.

Do People With Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain Have Impaired Motor Imagery? A Meta-analytical Systematic Review of the Left/Right Judgment Task.

The left/right judgment task (LRJT) is the most commonly used method of assessing motor imagery performance. Abnormally long response times are thought to reflect delayed processing of body/spatial representations, and poor accuracy is thought to reflect disrupted cortical proprioceptive representations or body schema. Slower and less accurate responses on the LRJT have been reported in a variety of chronic musculoskeletal pain conditions.

The development of a shoulder specific left/right judgement task: Validity & reliability.

Background: Disruption of cortically-held working body schema has been associated with a variety of pain conditions. A motor imagery technique - the left right judgement task (LRJT) - has been used as an indirect assessment of the integrity of the working body schema. To date there is no LRJT specifically designed to investigate the body schema of persons with shoulder pain.

Can a physical activity monitor provide a valid measure of arm elevation angle? A study to assess agreement between the SenseWear Mini Armband and the universal goniometer.

Background: We undertook the current study to assess whether an accelerometer-based physical activity monitor, the SenseWear Mini Armband (SMA), could be used to provide data on static arm elevation, and to assess the agreement between static arm elevation measures obtained using SMA-derived data and those obtained with a universal goniometer.

Methods: Using a universal goniometer, healthy adult subjects (n = 25, age 30 ± 9 years) had each of right and left arms positioned in a series of set positions between arm-by-side and maximal active arm flexion (anteversion), and arm-by-side and maximal active arm abduction. Subjects wore the SMA throughout positioning, and SMA accelerometer data was used to retrospectively calculate/derive arm elevation angle using a manufacturer-provided algorithm.

Shoulder Pain and Disability Index (SPADI).

The Shoulder Pain and Disability Index (SPADI) was developed to measure current shoulder pain and disability in an outpatient setting. The SPADI contains 13 items that assess two domains; a 5-item subscale that measures pain and an 8-item subscale that measures disability. There are two versions of the SPADI; the original version has each item scored on a visual analogue scale (VAS) and a second version has items scored on a numerical rating scale (NRS).