Grand Challenges in Musculoskeletal Pain Research: Chronicity, Comorbidity, Immune Regulation, Sex Differences, Diagnosis, and Treatment Opportunities

How strenuous is esports? Perceived physical exertion and physical state during competitive video gaming

“…A possible reason could be the short duration of video gaming (3–4 h), which might not be sufficient to develop pain or health issues. Additionally, musculoskeletal disorders are often a result of chronicity, which takes time to develop ( 35 , 36 ). Therefore, playing video games repeatedly for extended periods could potentially impact physical health and the perceived physical state ( 14 ).…”

Pain-sensorimotor interactions: New perspectives and a new model

“…chemical irritants or inflammogens such as formalin, mustard oil, carrageenan, or complete Freund’s adjuvant) or mechanically induced damage to tissues or restrictions of movement. Although these animal models do not necessarily simulate every feature associated with chronic inflammatory or mechanically induced pain in humans, the persistent pain-like behavior in these models has led to them generally being regarded as animal models of chronic pain ( Zhang and Ren, 2011 , Ren, 2020 , Kuner and Kuner, 2021 , Sadler et al, 2022 ). Chronic neuropathic pain models have included approaches that directly compromise some pain-related CNS circuits, but more commonly have involved injury (e.g.…”

“…Thereby, the CNS nociceptive neurons may also be receiving abnormal ectopic afferent inputs. The origin of the nociceptive afferents also appears to play a role in the ensuing degree of central sensitization since deep noxious stimulation produces a greater magnitude of central sensitization than that associated with superficial noxious stimuli ( Wall and Woolf, 1984 , Yu et al, 1993 , Ren, 2020 ). Furthermore, a common finding from many acute pain models is that the CNS areas that are activated in these models involve areas primarily related to the sensory-discriminative aspects of a noxious stimulus and pain modulation (e.g.…”

The Necessity of Methodological Advances in Pain Research: Challenges and Opportunities

“…Such methods will likely need to be multi-modal; in this sense, proper co-implementation will be necessary to move the field forward. For further discussion on the challenges regarding the transition from acute to chronic pain, see (36); musculoskeletal pain, see (37); neuropathic pain, see (38); and challenges in the pharmacotherapy of pain, see (36). These latter articles outline the general scope and vision of Frontiers in Pain Research.…”