title: Sensory discrimination capabilities in patients with focal hand dystonia.
abstract: To explore the concept that dystonia may result from dysfunction of the sensory system, 14 patients with focal hand dystonia were tested during two somatosensory discrimination tasks. Compared with controls, patients had a higher threshold in a task involving discrimination of two electric stimuli closely related temporally, an abnormality that correlated with the degree of severity of dystonia. There was no significant difference in a single-touch, gross localization task. The possible relevance of these findings to the pathogenesis of dystonia is discussed.
authors.affiliation: Human Motor Control Section, Medical Neurology Branch, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Bethesda, MD 20892-1428, USA.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Bara-Jimenez
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Shelton
authors.forename: T D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Sanger
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hallett
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D020821:Dystonic Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D006225:Hand / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D012684:Sensory Thresholds / Q000502:physiology*; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis