The Effects of Spinal Manipulation on Performance on Neck Pain Patients During a Fitts' Task
Condition: Chronic Neck Pain
MeSH terms: Neck Pain
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      The objective of this study is to quantify motor performance, this study will use an eye
      movement Fitts' task to examine the effects of cervical spine manipulation on participants
      with chronic neck pain and the subsequent changes to saccade movement time. This study will
      also include a head movement Fitts' task which has previously reported a reduction in head
      movement time in chronic neck pain participants after cervical spine manipulation.

      This is an observational within-subjects design that involves a pre/post cervical spine
      manipulation intervention on participants (n=20) with chronic neck pain and asymptomatic
      controls (n=20). All participants will complete an eye movement and head movement Fitts' task
      before and after cervical spine manipulation to identify any changes in saccade and head
      movement time, saccade and head peak velocity, and time to peak saccade and head velocity.
    

Detailed description: 
      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.
    

Intervention name(s): High velocity/low amplitude cervical spine manipulation
Intervention type(s): Other
Intervention description(s): The participants will receive a single cervical spine rotary manipulation to the previously identified palpable cervical segmental fixation. During the performance of the manipulation, the supine participant will rest their arms at the sides of their body. Next, the index finger of the chiropractor's contact hand will be placed on the lamina of the restricted cervical segment. The chiropractor will then rotate the participant's head contralaterally until the barrier of the cervical segments volitional end range is reached. The chiropractor's other hand will be placed behind the participant's head to induce gentle neck rotation contralateral to the chiropractor's thrusting hand. The chiropractor will deliver a manual thrust, with the thrust vector directed towards the participant's opposite eye.
Other intervention name(s): Cervical manipulation; Neck manipulation; Cervical adjustment; Neck adjustment
Allocation: Non-Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Intervention model description: This is an observational within-subjects design that involves a pre/post cervical spine manipulation intervention on participants (n=20) with chronic neck pain and asymptomatic controls (n=20). All participants will complete an eye movement and head movement Fitts' task before and after cervical spine manipulation to identify any changes in eye and head movement time, eye and head peak velocity, and time to peak eye and head velocity.
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Basic Science
Keywords: Manipulation, Spinal; Fitts' Task; Motor Performance