The Effects of Immobilisation and Exercise on Homeostatic Plasticity Mechanisms in Healthy Participants

NCT05252247 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: N-20210047
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 11
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Homeostasis is important for maintaining a stable equilibrium of e.g., blood pressure, hormonal release, and release of neurotransmitters. Within the healthy brain, homeostatic plasticity mechanisms ensure stability in synaptic plasticity that maintains cortical excitability within a normal physiological range, while this regulation has been shown to be impaired in chronic pain conditions such as low back pain. Cortical excitability can also be decreased and increased experimentally, using immobilisation and exercise paradigms, respectively, yet it is unknown if this overall change in excitability is caused by a shift in homeostatic plasticity regulation. Investigating if immobilisation and exercise influences homeostatic plasticity responses, may therefore reveal important information on the malleability of homeostatic plasticity mechanisms and ways to modulate them.

Conditions

Healthy

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Corticospinal excitability

  Change in corticospinal excitability (compared to baseline), as reflected by motor-evoked potential amplitudes induced by transcranial magnetic stimulation, after homeostatic plasticity induction

  Immediately after [0 minutes after homeostatic plasticity induction] and every 10 minutes up until 30 minutes after [10-30 minutes after homeostatic plasticity induction]

Secondary Outcomes (12)

• Quantitative Sensory Testing: Cuff detection threshold

  Before and 30 minutes post homeostatic plasticity induction

• Quantitative Sensory Testing: Cuff pain tolerance threshold

  Before and 30 minutes post homeostatic plasticity induction

• Quantitative Sensory Testing: Conditioned pain modulation

  Before and 30 minutes post homeostatic plasticity induction

• Quantitative Sensory Testing: Temporal summation of pain

  Before and 30 minutes post homeostatic plasticity induction

• Quantitative Sensory Testing: Mechanical pain threshold

  Before and 30 minutes post homeostatic plasticity induction

Study Arms (1)

Conditions

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants will attend three sessions where two consist of immobilisation or exercise interventions.

Other: Immobilisation; Other: Exercise

Interventions

Immobilisation OTHER

Eight hours prior to attending the immobilisation session, a splint will be fitted to the hand of the participant and remain until the session start.

Conditions

Exercise OTHER

Eight hours prior to attending the exercise session, the participant will be instructed to perform 150 ballistic finger movements every hour until the session start.

Conditions

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years - 60 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64)

You may qualify if:

• o Healthy, aged between 18-60 years, right-handed, and can speak, read, and understand Danish or English

You may not qualify if:

• Pregnant or breastfeeding
• Regular use of cannabis, opioids or other drugs (except contraceptives)
• Current or previous neurologic, musculoskeletal, mental, or other illnesses (e.g. brain or spinal cord injuries, degenerative neurological disorders, epilepsy, major depression, cardiovascular disease, chronic lung disease, etc.)
• Current or previous chronic or recurrent pain condition
• Current regular use of analgesic medication or other medication which may affect the trial (including paracetamol and NSAIDs)
• Lack of ability to cooperate
• Recent history of acute pain particularly in the lower limbs (unless related to low back pain in patients included in sub-project 6)
• Abnormally disrupted sleep in 24 hours preceding experiment
• Any medical or other condition (i.e. musculoskeletal, cardiorespiratory, neurological, etc.)
• Contraindications to TMS application (history of epilepsy, metal implants in head or jaw, etc.)
• Unable to pass the "Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Adult Safety Screen" or tDCS screening questionnaire

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Aalborg University: lead

Study Sites (1)

Aalborg University

Aalborg, North Denmark, 9220, Denmark

Location

Related Publications (4)

• Fricke K, Seeber AA, Thirugnanasambandam N, Paulus W, Nitsche MA, Rothwell JC. Time course of the induction of homeostatic plasticity generated by repeated transcranial direct current stimulation of the human motor cortex. J Neurophysiol. 2011 Mar;105(3):1141-9. doi: 10.1152/jn.00608.2009. Epub 2010 Dec 22.

  PMID: 21177994 BACKGROUND

• Thapa T, Graven-Nielsen T, Chipchase LS, Schabrun SM. Disruption of cortical synaptic homeostasis in individuals with chronic low back pain. Clin Neurophysiol. 2018 May;129(5):1090-1096. doi: 10.1016/j.clinph.2018.01.060. Epub 2018 Feb 9.

  PMID: 29472134 BACKGROUND

• Thapa T, Graven-Nielsen T, Schabrun SM. Aberrant plasticity in musculoskeletal pain: a failure of homeostatic control? Exp Brain Res. 2021 Apr;239(4):1317-1326. doi: 10.1007/s00221-021-06062-3. Epub 2021 Feb 26.

  PMID: 33635391 BACKGROUND

• Wittkopf PG, Larsen DB, Gregoret L, Graven-Nielsen T. Prolonged corticomotor homeostatic plasticity - Effects of different protocols and their reliability. Brain Stimul. 2021 Mar-Apr;14(2):327-329. doi: 10.1016/j.brs.2021.01.017. Epub 2021 Jan 24. No abstract available.

  PMID: 33503491 BACKGROUND

MeSH Terms

Interventions

Immobilization; Exercise

Intervention Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Investigative Techniques; Motor Activity; Movement; Musculoskeletal Physiological Phenomena; Musculoskeletal and Neural Physiological Phenomena

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NA
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: BASIC SCIENCE
• Intervention Model: SINGLE GROUP
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Assistant Professor

Model Details: This is a within-subject repeated measures comparisons study with one baseline session and two interventional sessions.

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: January 19, 2022
• First Posted: February 23, 2022
• Study Start: February 15, 2022
• Primary Completion: December 31, 2022
• Study Completion: December 31, 2022
• Last Updated: February 6, 2023

Record last verified: 2023-02

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

DK (1)