Investigating Proprioceptive Impairment in Adolescents With Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS)
Investigating Proprioceptive Impairment in Adolescents With Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS)
The goal of this interventionnal study is to learn if teenagers who have severe scoliosis (a curvature of the spine) have trouble sensing their body's position in space (this sense is called proprioception), which are directly linked to abnormalities in the part of the brain that controls movement and/or caused by the muscles on each side of the spine not being the same size or not developing in the same way.
The main question the investigators aim to answer are :
Researchers will compare the part of the brain that controls movement (ensorimotor brain network) of healthy subjects to that of the participants that will enroll in this study.
Participants will only have to do one more MRI that is not included in the routine of clinical management of scoliosis before surgery.
Data will also be retrieved from clinical practice Participants will answer questionnaires after the day of the surgery
Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS) affects 2 to 4% of the pediatric population. While its exact etiology remains unclear, one leading hypothesis implicates deficits in muscle proprioception, though this remains poorly understood. In addition, structural and functional alterations in brain connectivity have been reported in AIS patients, raising the possibility of a neurobiological underpinning linked to proprioceptive dysfunction.
The primary objective of this study is to determine whether adolescents with severe AIS requiring surgical treatment exhibit structural alterations in the brain's sensorimotor network compared to age-matched control subjects, and whether these alterations are associated with their level of proprioceptive sensitivity. A secondary objective is to assess whether resting-state functional connectivity within the sensorimotor network is also disrupted in AIS patients and whether these functional changes correlate with proprioceptive performance.
The investigators will combine behavioral assessments of static and dynamic proprioception with structural (diffusion MRI) and functional (resting-state fMRI) neuroimaging (using MR scanner at 3T). Static proprioception will be assessed using a joint repositioning test, while dynamic proprioception will be evaluated through vibration-induced movement illusions. This is a prospective, single-center study involving 30 AIS patients and 30 age- and gender-matched healthy controls drawn from open-access neuroimaging databases.
Demonstrating a correlation between brain network alterations and proprioceptive deficits in AIS would provide new evidence in favor of a neuroproprioceptive origin of scoliosis. Such findings could pave the way for the development of targeted proprioceptive rehabilitation strategies in affected adolescents.
Inclusion Criteria:
Exclusion Criteria:
anne.kavounoudias@univ-amu.fr+33(0)4 13 55 08 42