Nociceptive Processing of Elite Athletes Varies between Sport-Specific Loads: An EEG-Based Study Approach

ABSTRACT Introduction For the downstream nociceptive processing of elite athletes recent studies indicate that athletes probably tolerate more pain as compared to a normally active population. Phenotyping the nociceptive processing of athletes in different types of endurance sports can provide insight into training-specific effects, which may help in understanding the long-term effects of specific exercise. Methods 26 elite endurance athletes from the disciplines of rowing, triathlon and running, and 26 age and sex-matched, recreationally active control subjects the subjective pain perception and processing of standardized noxious stimuli were investigated by EEG. This included standardized heat pain thresholds (HPT) and contact heat-evoked potentials (CHEPS) from heat stimulation, measured with EEG as well as pinprick-evoked potentials (PEP) from mechanical stimulation. Results Following noxious stimulation, athletes showed a higher activation of the event-related spectral perturbation (ERSP) patterns in the N2P2 EEG response at the Cz Electrode compared to the controls. Following noxious contact heat stimulation, triathletes had a higher ERSP activation compared to the controls, while the rowers had a higher ERSP activation following noxious mechanical stimulation. Also, HPTs in triathletes were increased despite their increased central activation following thermal stimulation. We found a correlation between increased HPTs and training hours and years, though athletes did not differ within these variables. Conclusions Although we were able to identify differences between athletes of different endurance sports, the reasons and implications of these differences remain unclear. The study of sport-specific somatosensory profiles may help to understand the mechanisms of exercise-related long-term effects on pain processing and perception. Furthermore, sport-specific somatosensory effects may support the personalization of exercise interventions and identify risk factors for chronic pain in elite athletes.