The role of long‐term physical exercise on performance and brain activation during the Stroop colour word task in fibromyalgia patients

Abstract

The Stroop colour word test (SCWT) has been widely used to assess changes in cognitive performance such as processing speed, selective attention and the degree of automaticity. Moreover, the SCWT has proven to be a valuable tool to assess neuronal plasticity that is coupled to improvement in performance in clinical populations. In a previous study, we showed impaired cognitive processing during SCWT along with reduced task-related activations in patients with fibromyalgia. In this study, we used SCWT and functional magnetic resonance imagingFMRI to investigate the effects of a 15-week physical exercise intervention on cognitive performance, task-related cortical activation and distraction-induced analgesia (DIA) in patients with fibromyalgia and healthy controls. The exercise intervention yielded reduced fibromyalgia symptoms, improved cognitive processing and increased task-related activation of amygdala, but no effect on DIA. Our results suggest beneficial effects of physical exercise on cognitive functioning in FM.

Delayed effects of attention on pain sensitivity and conditioned pain modulation

“…In accordance with the hypothesis, the results show that VAS scores were lower during Stroop sessions compared to sessions with stimulus‐evoked pain without Stroop and with no differences between Stroop‐pain and Stroop‐pain‐conditioning. These results support top‐down analgesia possibly derived via cortical and/or subcortical regions (Damien, Colloca, Bellei‐Rodriguez, & Marchand, ; Wiech, ), and align with the existing literature showing that Stroop is sufficient to reduce pain sensitivity in healthy participants (Bantick et al., ; Fechir et al., ; Martinsen et al., , ; Oosterman et al., ; Wilder‐Smith et al., ) although one study found increased pain with increased cognitive load (Silvestrini & Rainville, ) and no significant difference in pain sensitivity was found in another study (Aniskin et al., ). Of previous studies only three looked at differences between congruent and incongruent paradigms with regards to pain sensitivity (Bantick et al., ; Martinsen et al., , ) and a difference was only found in one of the three (Bantick et al., ).…”

“…These results support top-down analgesia possibly derived via cortical and/or subcortical regions (Damien, Colloca, Bellei-Rodriguez, & Marchand, 2018;Wiech, 2016), and align with the existing literature showing that Stroop is sufficient to reduce pain sensitivity in healthy participants (Bantick et al, 2002;Fechir et al, 2009;Martinsen et al, 2014Martinsen et al, , 2018Oosterman et al, 2010;Wilder-Smith et al, 2013) although one study found increased pain with increased cognitive load (Silvestrini & Rainville, 2013) and no significant difference in pain sensitivity was found in another study (Aniskin et al, 2011). Of previous studies only three looked at differences between congruent and incongruent paradigms with regards to pain sensitivity (Bantick et al, 2002;Martinsen et al, 2014Martinsen et al, , 2018 and a difference was only found in one of the three (Bantick et al, 2002). However, Bantick et al (2002) used retrospective pain reports, which is likely to have affected the results (Pincus, Fraser, & Pearce, 1998).…”

“…Furthermore, attention analgesia is likely to involve the same subcortical structures as CPM (Erpelding & Davis, 2013;Kucyi, Salomons, & Davis, 2013). From a mechanism-based perspective it could seem that top-down modulation is activated by default under cognitive load (Bantick et al, 2002;Fechir et al, 2009;Martinsen et al, 2014Martinsen et al, , 2018Oosterman et al, 2010;Wilder-Smith et al, 2013), and that bottom-up mechanisms can be supplemented by top-down modulation during parallel but not serial application of attention-demanding tasks (Lautenbacher et al, 2007;Moont et al, 2010;Nir, Yarnitsky, Honigman, & Granot, 2012).…”

“…Stroop has been used to study the role of cognitive load on pain sensitivity (Marouf et al., ; Oosterman et al., ; Wilder‐Smith et al., ). Stroop can distract healthy volunteers during experimental pain leading to an analgesic effect (Bantick et al., ; Fechir et al., ; Martinsen et al., , ; Oosterman et al., ; Wilder‐Smith et al., ) but only one out of these studies reported analgesia after Stroop (Martinsen et al., ).…”

A systematic review of the effects of strength training in patients with fibromyalgia: clinical outcomes and design considerations

“…Of the 22 studies included in the review, the oldest was published in 2001 [38] and the most recent was published in 2017 [24,39,40] (Table 2). Most of the studies were conducted in the United States (36%, n = 8), followed by Finland (23%, n = 5), Brazil (18%, n = 4), Sweden (18%, n = 4), and Turkey (5%, n = 1).…”