Neglect-like tactile dysfunction in chronic back pain.

I am not sure if I should be commenting on this paper since I have not had access to the full article. But I find it interesting that the authors say in their conclusion (within abstract) that spatial representation of vibrotactile stimuli is disrupted in chronic unilateral back pain. It is possible that pathophysiology that leads to back pain also affects the dorsal column, which is believed to carry vibrotactile stimuli. In an animal model of spinal cord injury (Gupta et al., 2012) that may be closer to a chronic back pain model, there are indications of significant plastic changes in the dorsal column, based on my unpublished observations. I believe, again based on unpublished observations, that those changes may mechanistically explain, at least partly, the disruption of spatial representation of vibrotactile stimuli.

Reference:

Estradiol treatment prevents injury induced enhancement in spinal cord dynorphin expression.
Gupta DS, Hubscher CH.
Front Physiol. 2012; 3:28.