# Nervous system influences on recovery from painful rotator cuff tears

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA · 2023 · $555,892

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
In the last 30 years, clinical outcomes for individuals with rotator cuff tears have not substantially improved, which
is problematic for the 4.5 million Americans that seek medical care for rotator cuff tears each year. Our long-term
goal is to maximize functional recovery following rotator cuff tears by identifying patients most likely to benefit
from targeted pain interventions. This knowledge is necessary to optimize treatments of impaired pain
processing. Our central hypothesis is that the nervous system plays a larger role in symptom severity and
recovery than conventionally believed. The rationale for this hypothesis is based on the disconnect between the
rotator cuff structural damage and pain severity and the poor relationship between the extent of structural
damage (i.e., tear size, retraction, etc.) and functional recovery. Dr. Pozzi, a physical therapist with expertise in
biomechanics and movement science, will take his research in a new direction by approaching rotator cuff tears
from pain and neuroscience perspectives. Dr. Pozzi assembled a team with extensive clinical, pain,
neuroimaging, and pain-neuroscience expertise to test his central hypothesis through three specific aims: 1) test
the association between brain function during a shoulder motor-task, chronicity of injury, and clinical pain
symptoms in individuals with rotator cuff tears; 2) test the relationship between pain phenotypes, chronicity of
injury, and clinical pain symptoms in individuals with rotator cuff tears; and 3) test the utility of baseline
dispositional traits, quantitative sensory testing, and brain function to predict recovery following rotator cuff repair.
This application is innovative because we will recruit the three injury etiologies of rotator cuff tears (traumatic-
symptomatic, chronic-symptomatic, and asymptomatic), which provide a key advantage in studying chronic pain.
We are uniquely positioned to shed light on how the nervous system reacts to sudden and chronic loss of tendon
structural integrity with and without pain symptoms. We have the potential to test specific central features of
acute rotator cuff-induced pain that may become chronic. We designed a novel experiment in which we will
acquire functional brain images during precisely controlled submaximal isometric shoulder contractions. We will
elucidate factors influencing movement-evoked pain of body areas associated with the primary clinical
symptoms, thus providing evidence of potential intervention targets. Our study will provide a significant
contribution by identifying additional factors that may influence the variability in patient outcomes. Further, our
findings will move us toward the long-term goals of this line of investigation: informing precision pain medicine
with consideration for specific pain phenotypes in individuals with rotator cuff tears. The knowledge gained in
this study will not be incremental; it will springboard a paradigm shift in treating patient...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10629671
- **Project number:** 1R01AR080058-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
- **Principal Investigator:** Federico Pozzi
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2023
- **Award amount:** $555,892
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2023-05-10 → 2028-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10629671

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10629671, Nervous system influences on recovery from painful rotator cuff tears (1R01AR080058-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10629671. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*