Immediate effects of visuomotor tracking with the head on cervical sensorimotor function and pain in chronic neck pain patients.

Background: Working in awkward and sustained postures is, besides psychosocial risk factors, the most reported physical risk factor for neck pain. Accurate proprioception is fundamental to correcting awkward head-to-trunk positions, but impaired proprioceptive performance has been found in patients with chronic neck pain.

Objective: The aim was to compare the effectiveness of two different interventions in a workplace set-up on sensorimotor performance and pain sensitivity in people with chronic neck pain.

Methods: A total of 25 patients with chronic neck pain participated in this double-blind study. Patients were randomly allocated to the visuomotor tracking task group or the video group (watching a massage video, imagining themselves being massaged). The primary outcomes were cervical joint position sense acuity and pressure pain threshold of the cervical spine, evaluated by a blinded assessor.

Results: There were significant time by group interactions for cervical joint position sense acuity (F1;23: 4.38; p= 0.048) and pressure pain threshold (F1;23: 5.78; p= 0.025), with the tracking task group being more accurate in cervical joint position sense testing and less pain sensitive for pressure pain threshold.

Conclusions: The visuomotor tracking task improves cervical joint position sense acuity and reduces pressure pain threshold immediately after intervention in people with chronic neck pain.