Behavioral and Electrocortical Response to a Sensorimotor Conflict in Individuals with Fibromyalgia

Abstract

People with fibromyalgia have been shown to experience more somatosensory disturbances than pain-free controls during sensorimotor conflicts (i.e., incongruence between visual and somatosensory feedback). Sensorimotor conflicts are known to disturb the integration of sensory information. This study aimed to assess the cerebral response and motor performance during a sensorimotor conflict in people with fibromyalgia. Twenty participants with fibromyalgia and twenty-three pain-free controls performed a drawing task including visual feedback that was either congruent with actual movement (and thus with somatosensory information) or incongruent with actual movement (i.e., conflict). Motor performance was measured according to tracing error, and electrocortical activity was recorded using electroencephalography. Motor performance was degraded during conflict for all participants but did not differ between groups. Time–frequency analysis showed that the conflict was associated with an increase in theta power (4–8 Hz) at conflict onset over the left posterior parietal cortex in participants with fibromyalgia but not in controls. This increase in theta suggests a stronger detection of conflict in participants with fibromyalgia, which was not accompanied by differences in motor performance in comparison to controls. This points to dissociation in individuals with fibromyalgia between an altered perception of action and a seemingly unaltered control of action.

Keywords

• pain disorder
• motor adaptation
• sensorimotor integration
• electroencephalography