METHODS: Twenty-six elite endurance athletes from the disciplines of rowing, triathlon, and running and 26 age- and sex-matched, recreationally active control subjects who participated in the subjective pain perception and processing of standardized noxious stimuli were investigated by EEG. This included standardized heat pain thresholds (HPT) and contact heat-evoked potentials from heat stimulation, measured with EEG as well as pinprick-evoked potentials from mechanical stimulation.
RESULTS: After noxious stimulation, athletes showed a higher activation of the event-related spectral perturbation (ERSP) patterns in the N2P2 EEG response at the Cz Electrode compared with the controls. After noxious contact heat stimulation, triathletes had a higher ERSP activation compared with the controls, whereas the rowers had a higher ERSP activation after noxious mechanical stimulation. Also, HPT in triathletes were increased despite their increased central activation after thermal stimulation. We found a correlation between increased HPT and training hours and years, although athletes did not differ within these variables.
CONCLUSIONS: Although we were able to identify differences between athletes of different endurance sports, the reasons and implications of these differences remain unclear. The study of sport-specific somatosensory profiles may help to understand the mechanisms of exercise-related long-term effects on pain processing and perception. Furthermore, sport-specific somatosensory effects may support the personalization of exercise interventions and identify risk factors for chronic pain in elite athletes.
方法:来自赛艇学科的26名优秀耐力运动员,铁人三项和跑步,26岁和性别匹配,通过EEG研究了娱乐性主动控制受试者的主观疼痛感知和标准化有害刺激的处理。这包括标准化的热痛阈值(HPT)和来自热刺激的接触性热诱发电位(CHEPS),用EEG以及来自机械刺激的针刺诱发电位(PEP)测量。
结果:在伤害性刺激之后,与对照组相比,运动员在Cz电极的N2P2脑电图反应中显示出更高的事件相关谱扰动(ERSP)模式激活.在有害的接触热刺激之后,与对照组相比,铁人三项运动员的ERSP激活更高,而赛艇运动员在有害机械刺激后有更高的ERSP激活。此外,尽管热刺激后中枢激活增加,但铁人三项运动员的HPT增加。我们发现增加的HPT与训练时间和年限之间存在相关性,尽管运动员在这些变量中没有差异。
结论:尽管我们能够识别不同耐力运动运动员之间的差异,这些差异的原因和含义尚不清楚。运动特异性体感特征的研究可能有助于了解与运动相关的长期影响对疼痛处理和感知的机制。此外,运动特异性体感效应可能支持运动干预的个性化,并确定精英运动员慢性疼痛的危险因素.