Cervical Rotator Muscle Activity With Eye Movement at Different Speeds is Distorted in Whiplash

People with whiplash-associated disorders (WADs) report difficulty with quick head movements and cervicoocular dysfunction. Changes in coordination between eye movement and neck muscle activity may be involved.

To examine whether activity of superficial and deep neck muscles increases with eye movement when the head is held in a fixed position, whether this differs between directions and speed of eye movement, and whether this is modified in WAD.

Convenience case series with unmatched controls.

Research laboratory.

Nine individuals with chronic WAD grade II and 11 pain-free controls.

Electromyography (EMG) was recorded from muscles that could act to rotate the neck to the right (right obliquus capitis inferior [OI], multifidus [MF], splenius capitis [SC], and left sternocleidomastoid [SCM]) with intramuscular or surface electrodes in 9 WAD participants and 11 pain-free controls. Eyes were rotated without head movement to track slow and medium-speed targets to the right or left, and as fast as possible (FP).

Amplitude of EMG.

In controls, SCM and SC EMG increased with right gaze (all P's < .03). EMG of the deep OI muscle increased in both directions (P < .001). WAD involved counterintuitive greater activity of SCM with left rotation across speeds of eye movement (SC with slow movement, P < .036), decreased OI EMG with gaze left (P < .019), and no change in MF EMG (P < .6) in either gaze direction. For FP tasks, EMG of all muscles was greater than slower speeds in controls (all P's < .0001), but not WAD (all P's > .33).

Coordination between neck muscle activity and eye movements with increasing speed is modified in WAD. Contrasting changes are present in deep and superficial neck muscles with implications for neck function that may explain some common WAD symptoms.

IV.