Strategies for controlling movement of the spine in healthy and low back pain populations

Low back pain has been identified as the number one source of global disability. However, for the vast majority of patients who suffer from chronic low back pain, a clear pathoanatomical diagnosis for their pain is elusive. Therefore, a clinical and scientific focus on how these patients move their backs, and how these movements might trigger or predispose them to pain and dysfunction, is of paramount importance. Further, better understanding of how healthy people move their backs, as well as the variability in movement patterns both within and amongst healthy and patient populations, is required.

Human movement is controlled by the central nervous system and its muscle actuators. Thus, the scientific blending of biomechanics and motor control provides powerful methods to explore and learn more about the fundamental mechanisms underlying movement of the spine and trunk. Despite the high quality research that has been performed and published in this and other fields related to low back pain, the global prevalence of low back pain still persists at a level relatively unchanged. Clearly, more work focused on the patterns and control of movement in both healthy and well-defined patient populations is needed to more completely elucidate: 1) potential predisposing factors and triggers for dysfunction and/or pain; 2) potential strategies to both prevent and rehabilitate dysfunction and/or pain; and 3) methods to quantify and identify individuals who can most benefit from specific movement and motor control-based preventative and rehabilitative strategies.

Therefore, we are making a call for scientific papers with a focus on ‘Strategies for controlling movement of the spine in healthy and low back pain populations’. Specifically, we would like to see mechanistic studies that quantify and describe how the spine moves under different conditions for both healthy and low back populations, with a longer-term objective to bring us closer to realizing the three goals described in the previous paragraph. Focus of the papers could be on (but not necessarily limited to) kinematic patterns, dynamical systems, and mechanisms of control. Different experimental conditions could focus on any factors (internal or external) that influence how individuals move and/or control movement of their spines.

Keywords: spine biomechanics, low-back pain, human movement, rehabilitation, kinematic patterns

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