Basal ganglia activity remains elevated after movement in focal hand dystonia.
Although previous studies of focal hand dystonia have detected cortical sensorimotor abnormalities, little is known about the role of the basal ganglia in this disorder. We report here that when focal hand dystonic patients performed finger-tapping tasks, functional magnetic resonance imaging showed persisting elevations of basal ganglia activity after the tasks ended. We posit that inhibitory control of the basal ganglia may be faulty in focal hand dystonia, and that the increases we observe in "resting" activity may mask basal ganglia abnormalities in standard imaging contrast analyses.
Blood
Anne J
AJ
Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA. ablood@nmr.mgh.harvard.edu
Flaherty
Alice W
AW
Choi
Ji-Kyung
JK
Hochberg
Fred H
FH
Greve
Douglas N
DN
Bonmassar
Giorgio
G
Rosen
Bruce R
BR
Jenkins
Bruce G
BG
D000328:Adult; D001479:Basal Ganglia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D020821:Dystonic Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006225:Hand / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric