Effect of contrast massage on characteristics of visual and somatosensory evoked brain potentials

We studied the effect of contrast massage on the characteristics of visual and somatosensory evoked potentials. It is shown that the contrast massage is accompanied by an increase of the amplitude of the main components of the VEP. In the central-occipital part the increase of the amplitude of negative components was about 10%, whereas the amplitude of the positive component has almost doubled. In the left occipital part, in contrast, the amplitude of the negative components doubled, while the amplitude of the positive component increased by a third. The most significant increase - from 0.04 to 1.13 uV - was in the component of N135 in the right occipital part. The values of the latent periods have not changed. In the SEP an opposite dynamics was found. As seen in Figure 2, after a course of contrast massage the number of both early (P8-N9) and late (N20-P23) components reduces. This is confirmed by the results of statistical analysis. As Table 2 shows, the amplitude of the component P8-N9 of the SEP, both on the right and on the left reduced by 35-40%. Particularly expressed was the oppression of components N20-P23 in leads Erb'i-Erb'c on both sides - SSEP amplitude decreased by 4-5 times. The method of contrast massage is different from the traditional classic massage. The most important is the principle of contrast. It consists in alternation of strong and weak manipulations, which differently influence the nervous and muscular cells, causing various response. During massage, first of all, the numerous and various teleneurons are affected in different layers of skin, connected with the somatic and vegetative nervous system. In this case there is the first stage of transformation of mechanical energy of massage movements into the energy of nervous excitement, which gives rise to a complex chain of reflex reactions. Due to the massage impact on the deep tissues and organs, irritation from skin receptors (exteroreceptors) sums with that of the receptors in tendons, joint capsules, ligaments, fascia, muscles (proprioceptors), with irritations of receptors of vessel walls (angioreceptors) and internal organs (interoceptors). They all are transferred to the central nervous system and reach the cerebral cortex where all these centripetal afferent impulses are synthesized in the general complex reaction of the body shown in the form of certain functional changes in various organs and systems of the body. The expressed increased VEP contrast after a course of massage reflects its effect on the function of the higher central nervous system. SSEP oppression can be seen as a manifestation of the protective suppression of afferent level of the nervous system. These results suggest that the effect of contrast massage techniques aimed at reducing the BMI is associated with effect on both the peripheral units, and the central nervous system.

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