The Effects of Spinal Manipulation on Performance on Neck Pain Patients During a Fitts' Task

The purpose of this study is to measure the effects of cervical spine manipulation on the motor performance of participants with and without chronic neck pain.

The objective of this pre/post design study is to apply spinal manipulation of the cervical spine to participants with chronic neck pain and participants who are asymptomatic for neck pain, and to measure the subsequent changes of movement time of the eyes during an eye movement Fitts' task using eye-tracker technology.

This study will also include a head movement Fitts' task, which has been previously shown to identify a reduction in head movement time in participants after receiving cervical spine manipulation. The head movement task, which has a biomechanical basis, will serve as a comparator to the eye movement task, which has a neurophysiologic basis. Changes in head and eye movement time are both measures of motor performance.

The hypothesis for the eye movement Fitts' task, is that the eye movement time will be increase with larger distances between targets and will not be affected by changes in target width. It is anticipated that the eye movement time will reduce in the neck pain group following spinal manipulation in comparison to the asymptomatic group. We hypothesize that during the head movement task, symptomatic participants will experience a decrease in head movement time as compared to the asymptomatic group after spinal manipulation. We further hypothesize that head movement time will be increase with larger target distances and smaller target widths.

Participants with neck pain:

Inclusion criteria

• Between the ages of 18 and 40
• Neck pain for at least 3 months
• Palpable spinal segmental fixations at C1-7
• Neck pain must be reproducible by neck movements and/or provocative
• Normal or corrected-to-normal vision

Exclusion criteria

• Contraindications to spinal manipulation
• Can't be calibrated during the eye movement Fitts task (excluded from eye movement test only)
• Progressive neurologic deficits
• Cervical spine trauma or surgery
• Infection, tumor, osteoporosis, inflammatory spondyloarthropathy, spinal fracture, and a history of vestibular/inner ear dysfunction
• Diagnosed with an autonomic disorder such as Horner's syndrome
• Any current ocular and/or retinal disease, Diabetes, a history of head trauma
• Currently using opioids, recreational drugs or have a history of substance abuse

Asymptomatic participants:

Inclusion criteria

• Between the ages of 18 and 40
• No neck pain for at least 3 months
• Palpable spinal segmental fixations at C1-7
• Normal or corrected-to-normal vision

Exclusion criteria

• Contraindications to spinal manipulation
• Can't be calibrated during the eye movement Fitts task (excluded from eye movement test only)
• Progressive neurologic deficits
• Cervical spine trauma or surgery
• Infection, tumor, osteoporosis, inflammatory spondyloarthropathy, spinal fracture, and a history of vestibular/inner ear dysfunction
• Diagnosed with an autonomic disorder such as Horner's syndrome
• Any current ocular and/or retinal disease, Diabetes, a history of head trauma
• Currently using opioids, recreational drugs or have a history of substance abuse