Impact of Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment on Pursuit Eye Movements in Healthy Human Adults
Condition: Healthy
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      The idea that osteopathic manipulative treatments (OMTs) should have an impact on the human
      visual system is not new. Nevertheless, there is a lack of scientific, objective, and
      experimental evidence. Our goal is to conduct a randomized, double-blind, controlled study to
      evaluate the effect of OMT on ocular pursuit. Eye movements will be measured by an infra-red
      video-based eye tracking system with a high spatial and temporal resolution. OMTs will be
      similar to regular treatments given by osteopaths in their daily practice. We hypothesize
      that OMT will improve the quality of ocular pursuit.
    

Detailed description: 
      Our hypothesis is based on the implication of the fascial system (i.e., connective tissues)
      in the structural continuity that gives form and function to every tissue and organ. Fascial
      tissue, on which osteopathic manipulations are acting by restoring its elasticity, is also
      present in the eye cavity. The connection between fascia might explain how osteopathic
      manipulations, applied on structures which can be far from the original dysfunctional point,
      might improve oculomotricity.

      Before and after OMT, practitioners will estimate the lateral and medial oculomotor muscles'
      and the fascia's tissue elasticity with a manual test. They will softly mobilize the eyeballs
      in medial and lateral directions (the amplitude of these passive mobilizations will always be
      lower than active eye rotations) and give an elasticity score. Before and after these tests,
      pursuit eye movements will be recorded by an independent technician. Participants will be
      asked to track a target that will be displaced horizontally on a computer screen. The target
      will move 30 times from left to right and 30 times from right to left with a constant speed
      of 20 degrees of visual angle per second.

      The study will involve three independent groups (experimental, sham, test-retest) of healthy
      participants. We expect that pursuit improvement will be larger in the experimental group
      than in the two other groups. Moreover, as secondary goals, we will evaluate the correlation
      between pursuit eye movement data (obtained with a technical device, in a standardized
      situation) and subjective assessments of oculomotor muscles' elasticity made by the
      practitioners providing OMTs. We will also examine the possible practitioner effect (two
      exclusive osteopaths will provide OMTs).
    

Intervention name(s): Osteopathic manipulative treatment; Sham Osteopathic manipulative treatment
Intervention type(s): Other; Other
Intervention description(s): Participants will be positioned on an exam table supine, seated, or decubitus. Osteopathic manipulations will consist in corrective micro-movements applied on synovial joints, on the skull, the teeth and/or visceral structures of the abdomen or the thorax. Local pressures won't exceed a few tens of grams/cm². Practitioners will realize between 15 and 25 technical gestures per participant. Treatment will last 30 minutes (plus or minus 5 minutes) on average. The technical gestures are referenced in the Glossary of Osteopathic Terminology published by the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (2017).; Participants will be positioned on an exam table supine, seated, or decubitus. They will receive 20 gestures that will be standardized and different from actual osteopathic manipulations (but not identifiable as sham manipulations by the participants). The duration of the sham treatment will be the same as the actual treatment.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Double (Participant, Outcomes Assessor)
Primary purpose: Other
Keywords: Osteopathic manipulative treatment; Ocular pursuit