Sensorimotor Function and Dizziness in Neck Pain: Implications for Assessment and Management

The influence of cervical movement on eye stabilization reflexes: a randomized trial

“…Neck pain patients show sensorimotor disturbances that are often related to pain, diminished range of motion, quality of movement, and oculomotor disturbances (Storaci et al 2006;Treleaven 2008;Kristjansson and Treleaven 2009;Bexander and Hodges 2012;Kristjansson et al 2016;Stenneberg et al 2016). These oculomotor disturbances can provoke blurred vision, dizziness and the need to concentrate more than usual when reading (Treleaven and Takasaki 2014).…”

“…In patients with neck pain and Whiplash Associated Disorders (WAD) oculomotor disturbances have been described (Heikkilä and Wenngren 1998;Kelders et al 2005;Storaci et al 2006;Montfoort et al 2006Montfoort et al , 2008Treleaven et al 2011;Ischebeck et al 2016), which may be attributed to altered cervical functioning (Treleaven et al 2006;Falla and Farina 2007;Kristjansson and Treleaven 2009;Hodges 2011). Here we studied the effects of neck (im-) mobilization on the eye stabilization reflexes as part of the oculomotor system in healthy subjects.…”

The Effect of Cervical Spine Manipulation on Postural Sway in Patients With Nonspecific Neck Pain

“…This is reflected by the dense concentration of proprioceptive organs within cervical musculature and the extensive network of connections that cervical afferents form with numerous components of the postural control system. These include visual and vestibular centres, supraspinal centres, key cervical nuclei and several postural reflexes that contribute to maintaining homeostasis of the head, neck and body (36)(37)(38)(39). Considering the many systems that draw information from cervical afferents, it is evident that the integrity of this information is essential to ensure accurate sensorimotor processing and motor output.…”

Using the cervical range of motion (CROM) device to assess head repositioning accuracy in individuals with cervical radiculopathy in comparison to neck- healthy individuals

“…Individuals with cervical radiculopathy caused by disc disease (CDD) display reduced physical functioning and overall health (Peolsson et al, 2002;Daffner et al, 2003;Ylinen et al, 2003;Peolsson and Kjellman, 2007). Assessment of HRA is recommended in individuals with neck pain (Humphreys, 2008;Treleaven, 2008;Kristjansson and Treleaven, 2009), but to our knowledge, studies reporting this assessment have not previously been carried out in individuals with CDD.…”