Health TrialsbyHealthPanel

Laterality Training and Pain Drawings

ConditionsChronic Musculoskeletal PainChronic Shoulder PainChronic Knee Pain
Trial statusNot yet recruiting
Trial phaseNot applicable
Trial typeInterventional
Biological sexAll
Age18+
SponsorHawaii Pacific University

About this trial

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if laterality training (a type of brain-based therapy) can help reduce pain and change how people with chronic musculoskeletal pain experience and describe their pain. The study will focus on adults with shoulder or knee pain lasting longer than 6 months.

The main questions it aims to answer are:

Does laterality training lead to a reduction in self-reported pain levels?

Does laterality training reduce the area of the body that participants indicate as painful in their pain drawings?

Does laterality training improve accuracy and speed in left/right judgment tasks?

Researchers will compare participants who complete laterality training to those who complete a non-therapeutic cognitive task (a word puzzle) to see if laterality training changes pain drawings and improves pain outcomes.

Participants will:

Complete a pre-intervention assessment including pain ratings, pain drawings, and a left/right judgment test

Be randomly assigned to one of two groups:

Intervention group: Complete 5 one-minute sessions of laterality training using a tablet-based app called Recognise™, identifying left or right hand/foot images depending on the location of their pain

Control group: Complete a 10-minute crossword puzzle activity (non-therapeutic)

Complete the same assessments after the activity (pain ratings, pain drawings, left/right judgment test)

The study will take place at two outpatient physical therapy clinics. Participation involves a single session lasting approximately 30-45 minutes. There is no cost to participate, and no compensation is provided. Participation is voluntary, and all personal data will be kept confidential.

This research will help determine whether laterality training, a non-invasive brain-based technique, can reduce pain and improve quality of life in people with long-standing musculoskeletal pain.

Eligibility criteria

This trial does not accept healthy volunteers

Qualifiers

Adults aged 18 years or older

Diagnosis of chronic shoulder or knee pain lasting more than 6 months

Able to read and understand English

Willing to provide written informed consent

Disqualifiers

Visual impairments that would interfere with laterality training (e.g., blindness or significant difficulty with vision)

Previous participation in laterality (left/right discrimination) training

Unwilling or unable to participate in the study procedures

Trial design

Design model

Parallel

Treatments tested in this trial

  • Laterality Training

    Behavioral

    Participants complete a structured laterality training session using a tablet-based application that presents images of hands or feet. Depending on their pain location (shoulder or knee), participants identify whether each image shows a left or right body part. The session consists of 5 one-minute training bouts with 60-second rest intervals between each. The task is designed to engage and retrain cortical body maps associated with the painful region, based on principles of graded motor imagery. Participants are instructed to prioritize accuracy over speed.

  • Sham (No Treatment)

    Other intervention

    Participants in this arm will complete a non-therapeutic cognitive activity by working independently on a standard word-based crossword puzzle for 10 minutes. This task is designed to match the duration and engagement level of the laterality training without influencing sensorimotor processing or cortical body maps. It serves as a sham comparator to help isolate the specific effects of the laterality training intervention.

Treatment groups

60 Participants
are divided into 2 treatment groups
Group A: Laterality Training InterventionExperimental treatment 1 intervention
Group B: Sham Cognitive Task ComparatorSham comparator 1 intervention

Trial outcomes

Primary outcomes

1

Change in Pain Drawing Area

Measured using a standardized body chart with a grid overlay. Participants mark areas of perceived pain, and the total number of grid squares marked is quantified to assess changes in spatial pain representation.

Time frame
Baseline and post-intervention (approximately 15 minutes after Baseline)

Secondary outcomes

1

Change in Left/Right Judgment Accuracy and Reaction Time

Assessed using the Recognise™ app. Participants complete two 60-second tests identifying left/right images of hands (shoulder pain) or feet (knee pain). Accuracy (%) and average response time (seconds per image) are recorded.

Time frame
Baseline and post-intervention (approximately 15 minutes after Baseline)
2

Change in Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS)

Self-reported pain intensity measured using an 11-point numeric scale (0 = no pain, 10 = worst imaginable pain). This outcome assesses the immediate change in pain before and after the intervention.

Time frame
Baseline and post-intervention (approximately 15 minutes after Baseline)

Other outcomes

Sponsors and contacts

Click on the lead sponsor to view all of their trials.

Hawaii Pacific University

Lead sponsor

Therapeutic Neuroscience Research Group

Collaborator

Source ClinicalTrials.gov

This trial is not recruiting at the moment. You can still explore other options: