The following is a summary of “Relationship between sustained hamstring pain and reorganisation of somatosensory representations: a randomised, controlled study,” published in the July 2024 issue of Pain by Lin et al.

Recurrent hamstring injuries in sports may stem from changes in somatosensory representations influenced by initial injury pain, though causality remains unclear in current cross-sectional studies.

Researchers conducted a retrospective study investigating the effects of experimentally induced sustained hamstring pain on somatosensory and spatial representations.

They randomly divided 50 individuals into two groups. One group underwent an eccentric exercise regimen targeting the right hamstring to induce delayed-onset muscle soreness, while the other performed a repetition-matched concentric exercise protocol. Two-point discrimination and tactile localization tasks were evaluated using tactile cortical representation, proprioceptive representation was assessed with a left-right judgment task, and peripersonal spatial representations were examined with an auditory localization task. Assessments occurred at baseline and on day 2.

The result showed no significant differences between groups in tactile acuity, but the experimental group showed improved left-right judgment accuracy and impaired auditory localization compared to controls.

Investigators concluded that sustained hamstring pain enhances proprioceptive processing while diminishing peripersonal spatial processing, suggesting implications for managing reinjury risks and designing rehabilitation strategies post-hamstring pain.

Source: journals.lww.com/pain/abstract/9900/the_relationship_between_sustained_hamstring_pain.639.aspx