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Neurology-Based Chiropractic

Chiropractic Is More Than Moving Joints

Your brain and body are in constant communication. Every movement and change in joint position provides information to your nervous system, helping your brain understand what your body is doing.

That connection is why Dr. Crokin looks beyond where you hurt to consider how your nervous system and musculoskeletal system are working together.

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Why the Brain Matters to How Your Body Functions

Your nervous system is involved in much more than pain. It helps your brain coordinate how your muscles work, how your joints move, how you maintain your posture, and how you stay balanced and stable. When that coordination is less efficient, you may notice changes in the way your body moves or responds.

Movement & Mobility

Smooth movement depends on your brain receiving and processing information about where your body is and how it is moving. Changes in that coordination may show up as restricted movement, reduced joint mobility, or movements that simply do not feel as natural as they should.

Muscles & Posture

Your nervous system helps determine when muscles contract, relax, and work together. When those signals are not being coordinated efficiently, some muscles may remain overly tight while others are underused or poorly coordinated, making posture and movement more difficult to maintain.

Balance & Stability

Staying balanced requires your brain to continuously interpret information from your body and surroundings. When those systems are not working together efficiently, you may notice changes in balance, stability, or how confidently your body responds to movement.

So how does your brain know what your body is doing? It starts with a continuous flow of information between your body and your nervous system.

The Feedback Loop

Your Brain and Body Are Always Talking

Your nervous system is constantly carrying information between your body and your brain. This ongoing feedback helps your brain understand what your body is doing and coordinate how it responds.
Your Brain
processes information
Signals Back
guides movement and response
Body Response
creates more sensory information
Your Body
movement · joints · muscles
Information In
sensory information

Body → Brain

Your body sends information in.

Movement, joint position, muscle contraction, and changes around you create sensory information that travels through your nervous system to your brain.

Brain → Body

Your brain processes and responds.

Your brain uses that information to help determine where your body is, how it is moving, and what response is appropriate. It then sends signals back through the nervous system that influence muscle activity, movement, posture, balance, and coordination.

Where Chiropractic Fits

An Adjustment Is Also Sensory Input

A chiropractic adjustment changes the way a joint moves. Because joint movement provides sensory information to your nervous system, changing that movement also changes some of the information your nervous system receives. That is why Dr. Crokin looks at an adjustment as more than a mechanical change. It is also a specific form of sensory input within the larger communication loop between your body and brain.

What an Adjustment Changes

One Change, Three Effects

Joint movement changes

Sensory information changes

The nervous system receives different information

If an adjustment provides neurological input, the next question is important: how does Dr. Crokin decide what kind of input makes sense for you?

Integrated Care

More Than an Adjustment

An adjustment is only one way Dr. Crokin may provide input to your nervous system. Depending on what he finds during your evaluation, care may also include movement, balance, eye, coordination, or sensory exercises.

Joint Input

Chiropractic adjustments can change joint movement and the sensory information entering your nervous system.
Chiropractic Adjustments

Movement Input

Movement, balance, and coordination exercises may be used to challenge how your brain and body work together during movement and physical tasks.
Movement exercises
Balance exercises
Coordination exercises

Sensory & Neurological Input

Eye movements, tapping, and other sensory exercises may be used when Dr. Crokin wants to work with specific aspects of neurological function identified during the evaluation.
Eye exercises
Tapping
Other sensory exercises
This neurological approach is based on a simple idea: different findings may call for different kinds of input. But it is also reasonable to ask what the research actually tells us about chiropractic and the nervous system.

The Evidence

What Research Tells Us About Chiropractic and the Nervous System

It is reasonable to ask how much of the neurological connection we have described is actually supported by research.

Studies using brain imaging and neurophysiological measurements have found that spinal manipulation can produce measurable changes in the nervous system. At the same time, researchers are still working to understand what many of those changes mean for patient outcomes.

What Research Has Found

Measurable neurological responses
Studies have observed changes in neurological activity following spinal manipulation, including short-term changes in how the nervous system processes and responds to information.

Changes in sensory and motor processing
Research has identified changes involving sensory processing, motor control, and the integration of sensory information with movement.

Changes can be measured beyond the joint itself
Some studies using brain and neurophysiological measurements have observed changes in cortical activity and connectivity following spinal manipulation.

What We’re Still Learning

What those changes mean clinically
A measurable change in nervous-system activity does not automatically mean that it will produce a specific improvement in pain, balance, coordination, or another symptom.

How responses differ from person to person
Research does not establish that every person or every adjustment produces the same neurological response.

How far the conclusions can go
Current research does not support broad claims that chiropractic “improves brain health,” rewires the brain, or treats neurological disease simply because neurological changes can be measured after spinal manipulation.
Selected Research

Wirth et al., 2019 · Spine — Neurophysiological effects of high velocity and low amplitude spinal manipulation in symptomatic and asymptomatic humans: a systematic literature review. PubMed

Gyer et al., 2019 · Journal of Integrative Medicine — Spinal manipulation therapy: is it all about the brain? A current review of the neurophysiological effects of manipulation. PubMed

Pickar, 2002 · The Spine Journal — Neurophysiological effects of spinal manipulation. PubMed

European Journal of Neuroscience, 2026 — Neurophysiological response of spinal mobilization and manipulation in individuals with and without musculoskeletal spine disorders: a scoping review. PubMed

Meyer et al., 2019 · Chiropractic & Manual Therapies — Unravelling functional neurology: does spinal manipulation have an effect on the brain? A systematic literature review. PubMed

Brain Anatomy & Function

The frontal lobe controls voluntary movement, decision-making, and motor coordination. Chiropractic care can enhance its function by improving spinal alignment and stimulation to the motor cortex.
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The parietal lobe processes sensory input like touch and body position. Chiropractic adjustments help optimize nerve signals traveling through the spine to maintain accurate sensory integration.
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Responsible for visual processing, the occipital lobe can benefit from chiropractic care that relieves spinal tension affecting nerves related to vision and head posture.
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The temporal lobe manages hearing, memory, and emotional regulation. Chiropractic techniques activate the auditory and limbic system.
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Chiropractic adjustments have a direct impact on the cerebellum often with immediate effects, improving proprioceptive and vestibular control.
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The Takeaway

The research supports something more measured and useful: spinal manipulation can create neurological as well as mechanical effects. What those effects mean for an individual patient depends on much more than a research finding alone. That is why Dr. Crokin looks at an adjustment as more than a mechanical change. It is also a specific form of sensory input within the larger communication loop between your body and brain.

Research can help us understand the general neurological connection. An evaluation is what helps Dr. Crokin determine what may actually be relevant to you. 

Getting Started

Your Care Starts With Your Story

You don’t need to know whether your symptoms are coming from a joint, a nerve, your balance system, or another factor before you schedule. That is what the evaluation is for.

Dr. Crokin starts by listening to what you are experiencing, then looks at the findings that may be relevant to your situation before deciding what kind of care makes sense.

You do not need to figure out the answer on your own. The goal of the evaluation is to determine what is actually relevant in your case.

    BeWell Chiropractic Dr. Crokin with Spine Office Porch

Schedule an Evaluation

You don't have to figure out your neck or back pain on your own. Share your story. Let the evaluation determine what is relevant.
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