Pressure-pain thresholds of the plantar foot reflect relative tissue thickness and are systematically higher in active runners than non-runners

Distance runners presented with lowered sensitivity to mechanical pain than non-runners, despite relatively thinner plantar foot tissues. The topographical variation in PPTs across the plantar foot can be effectively modeled as a function of relative plantar tissue thickness, and the hypoalgesic bias in runners may be mitigated by the normalization of PPT values to those of the hand, without altering the shape of the logit function. Hence, centrally-mediated pathways may underpin the mechanical hypoalgesia of the plantar foot in runners.