Posters
Presenting Author Academic/Professional Position
Undergraduate
Academic Level (Author 1)
Undergraduate
Discipline/Specialty (Author 1)
Neuroscience
Academic Level (Author 2)
Undergraduate
Discipline/Specialty (Author 2)
Neuroscience
Academic Level (Author 3)
Faculty
Discipline/Specialty (Author 3)
Neuroscience
Presentation Type
Poster
Discipline Track
Biomedical Science
Abstract Type
Research/Clinical
Abstract
Temporary deafferentation (TD) has emerged as a powerful methodological and rehabilitation tool, used in animal and clinical studies for over 50 years. TD uses temporary anesthesia to suppress or lower the afferent input from a region, dermatome or innervated muscle. Previous data in our laboratory has shown benefit from a single session of TD. Here, we evaluated multi-session delivery of TD in healthy subjects. We hypothesized that multi-session delivery of TD will result in larger benefits in arm and hand function, compared to a single session. We hypothesized that our observed improvements would be due to improved muscle physiological response of prolonged use of the anesthetic cream.
To evaluate our hypothesis, we conducted a multi-session, longitudinal clinical study. Participants all signed informed consent and were required to be 18 years or older, have no upper limb impairments and willing to participate in the study. Our study followed a pre-test – post-test design. Prior to starting TD (pre-test), we evaluated several measures of muscle strength and function, specifically: speed (dynamometers), dexterity (nine-hole peg test), hand function and reaching ability (Bionik arm robot) and strength (dynamometers). After pre-test, participants will undergo a three-day session of temporary deafferentation. Here, we will apply temporary deafferentation (using 5% topical lidocaine cream) to their right bicep for 60 minutes, followed by 30 minutes of triceps strengthening exercises. After completing the three sessions, we re-evaluated participants muscle strength and function (post-test).
We have evaluated preliminary data (n=3) where pre-test occurred on the same day as the first day of TD and post-test occurred on the same day as the last day of TD. Overall, we found that the majority of muscle strength and function were reduced at post-test (p=0.0008). Based on post interviews with participants, we believe that our results are significantly affected by fatigue. Specifically, since outcome metrics were collected after exercise on day 3 of TD, we suspect that our study design impacted our collected results. Moving forward, we will modify our study design to ensure post-test measures are not collected on the same day as an application of TD. Overall, we anticipate our findings will help us fully optimize temporary deafferentation such that it can be used more successfully in neurodegenerative disease populations.
Recommended Citation
Perez, Mayrin A.; Garcia, Edrick; and Baker, Kelsey, "Optimization of Multi-Session Temporary Deafferentation in Healthy Subjects for Applications in Neurorehabilitation" (2025). Research Symposium. 102.
https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/somrs/2025/posters/102
Included in
Optimization of Multi-Session Temporary Deafferentation in Healthy Subjects for Applications in Neurorehabilitation
Temporary deafferentation (TD) has emerged as a powerful methodological and rehabilitation tool, used in animal and clinical studies for over 50 years. TD uses temporary anesthesia to suppress or lower the afferent input from a region, dermatome or innervated muscle. Previous data in our laboratory has shown benefit from a single session of TD. Here, we evaluated multi-session delivery of TD in healthy subjects. We hypothesized that multi-session delivery of TD will result in larger benefits in arm and hand function, compared to a single session. We hypothesized that our observed improvements would be due to improved muscle physiological response of prolonged use of the anesthetic cream.
To evaluate our hypothesis, we conducted a multi-session, longitudinal clinical study. Participants all signed informed consent and were required to be 18 years or older, have no upper limb impairments and willing to participate in the study. Our study followed a pre-test – post-test design. Prior to starting TD (pre-test), we evaluated several measures of muscle strength and function, specifically: speed (dynamometers), dexterity (nine-hole peg test), hand function and reaching ability (Bionik arm robot) and strength (dynamometers). After pre-test, participants will undergo a three-day session of temporary deafferentation. Here, we will apply temporary deafferentation (using 5% topical lidocaine cream) to their right bicep for 60 minutes, followed by 30 minutes of triceps strengthening exercises. After completing the three sessions, we re-evaluated participants muscle strength and function (post-test).
We have evaluated preliminary data (n=3) where pre-test occurred on the same day as the first day of TD and post-test occurred on the same day as the last day of TD. Overall, we found that the majority of muscle strength and function were reduced at post-test (p=0.0008). Based on post interviews with participants, we believe that our results are significantly affected by fatigue. Specifically, since outcome metrics were collected after exercise on day 3 of TD, we suspect that our study design impacted our collected results. Moving forward, we will modify our study design to ensure post-test measures are not collected on the same day as an application of TD. Overall, we anticipate our findings will help us fully optimize temporary deafferentation such that it can be used more successfully in neurodegenerative disease populations.
