Neuroplasticity after Physical Therapy A Pre- Study: Test- Retest- Effects in Healthy Participants

Abstract

P300 event-related potentials have frequently been used to study maladaptive neuroplasticity in chronic pain patients. It has not only been found that this patient group shows a significant increase in P300 latency, but furthermore that successful pain therapy is able to normalize this latency. Pain exposure physical therapy (PEPT) is a new treatment for patients with complex regional pain syndrome type I (CRPS-I). An important question is whether PEPT is able to reverse the maladaptive neuroplasticity of CRPS- I patients, which is thought to be the cause of the chronic pain. Using the P300 as an objective parameter to assess pain relief and as a measure of neuroplasticity, this question could be answered. However, before testing the assumption that the P300 changes due to the pain relieving effects of the PEPT in patients, we investigated, whether there is a general effect of physical therapy (‘sham’ PEPT) on the P300 in healthy controls and how the individual differences are. The values of peak latency and amplitudes of the P300 were recorded in 15 healthy participants before and after a ‘sham’ therapy. No test- retest effects were observed. In a coming study with pain patients we will investigate whether this measure can be used to evaluate pain relief and neuroplasticity following PEPT in CRPS-I patients.