Correlation of Laterality discrimination task with cervical joint position sense and pain in patients with Chronic non specific neck pain.

Neck pain is a common musculoskeletal disorder with a high prevalence in the population and is the fourth leading condition that generates greater disability. Chronic neck pain is associated with impairment in proprioception due to its peripheral effects along with altered body schema which refers to the internal representation of the body in the peri personal space. Laterality discrimination task measures the ability of a person to identify if the part is rotated to the left side or the right side and is dependent on the intact body representation or body schema. Cervical joint position sense is quantified by joint position error (JPE) measured in degrees and is a measure of cervical proprioception. Both sensory as well as proprioceptive information is utilized for the internal representation of the body i.e. body schema. Thus the aim of our study is to correlate laterality discrimination task performance through response time and accuracy with  cervical joint position sense and pain.

This study will be conducted by recruiting 100 participants consisting of both males and females in the age group of 18-45 years in two groups. First group will consist of 50 patients with chronic non-specific neck pain and second group will consist of 50 age-gender matched asymptomatic controls. One time assessment of laterality discrimination task through response time and accuracy, cervical joint position sense through joint position sense error and pain through NRS will be done.

With the help of this study we will be able to understand if there is any correlation of laterality discrimination task with cervical joint position sense and pain.