The Effect of Capsaicin-induced Pain on Homeostatic Plasticity in Healthy Human Participants
Status:
Recruiting
Trial end date:
2020-12-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
People suffering from chronic pain exhibit changes in the way the central nervous system
processes pain. Some of the changes in the central nervous system are associated with how the
brain adapts to the process of different stimuli. There are several physiological mechanisms
that regulates how the brain adapts to changes and one of these mechanisms is called
homeostatic plasticity (or equilibrium plasticity ). In healthy participants homeostatic
plasticity mechanisms have been tested and considered normal, whereas in patients with
chronic conditions, such as low back pain, this mechanism was shown to be dysfunctional.
However, it is unknown when this difference in the pain system develops. It is possible that
homeostatic mechanism becomes impaired during early stages of pain. This experiment will
investigate the effect of capsaicin-induced pain on homeostatic plasticity in healthy
participants.