Background: Earlier evidence show that the insular cortex might play an important role in the building of the abstract idea of our body state suggesting that insular dysfunctions would lead to abnormal corporal perception in chronic pain. Neuroanatomical and functional studies show that the insular cortex modulate vestibular activity in the brain stem, however the vestibular activity has been poor studied in chronic pain.
Objective: The aim of this research is to study the vestibular activity in chronic pain.
Patients and method: 10 chronic pain patients, and 10 healthy subjects, were tested in aTonnies, Erben KG model rotary chair. The nystagmus was recorded by electronystagmography. For the appreciation of the symmetry between right or left vestibular activity we measured the nystagmus's slow phase velocity (SPV) induced by right and leftward rotation of the chair correspondingly.
Results: The chronic pain subjects group showed an asymmetric vestibular pattern of activity, significantly different (p < 0.05) to the healthy group who presented symmetric vestibular activity.
Conclusions: We found that the vestibular patterns of response to rotary testing in chronic pain were different than healthy ones. The physio-pathological significance of this finding should be the subject of further research.
*I have obtained patient and/or Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval, as necessary.
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© 2015 Published by Elsevier Inc.
