Mental rotation and working memory in musicians' dystonia.
Mental rotation of body parts engages cortical-subcortical areas that are actually involved in the execution of a movement. Musicians' dystonia is a type of focal hand dystonia that is grouped together with writer's cramp under the rubric of "occupational dystonia", but it is unclear to which extent these two disorders share common pathophysiological mechanisms. Previous research has demonstrated patients with writer's cramp to have deficits in mental rotation of body parts. It is unknown whether patients with musicians' dystonia would display similar deficits, reinforcing the concept of shared pathophysiology.



Eight patients with musicians' dystonia and eight healthy musicians matched for age, gender and musical education, performed a number of tasks assessing mental rotation of body parts and objects as well as verbal and spatial working memories abilities.



There were no differences between patients and healthy musicians as to accuracy and reaction times in any of the tasks.



Patients with musicians' dystonia have intact abilities in mentally rotating body parts, suggesting that this disorder relies on a highly selective disruption of movement planning and execution that manifests only upon playing a specific instrument. We further demonstrated that mental rotation of body parts and objects engages, at least partially, different cognitive networks.
Sobell Department of Motor Neuroscience and Movement Disorders, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, United Kingdom; Department of Neuroscience, Biomedicine and Movement Science, University of Verona, Verona, Italy. Electronic address: erro.roberto@gmail.com.
Roberto
R
Erro
Sobell Department of Motor Neuroscience and Movement Disorders, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, United Kingdom.
Stephanie T
ST
Hirschbichler
Institute of Molecular and Clinical Sciences, St George's University of London, London, United Kingdom.
Lucia
L
Ricciardi
School of Biological & Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom.
Agata
A
Ryterska
Sobell Department of Motor Neuroscience and Movement Disorders, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, United Kingdom.
Elena
E
Antelmi
Sobell Department of Motor Neuroscience and Movement Disorders, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, United Kingdom; Department of Neurology, University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
Christos
C
Ganos
Sobell Department of Motor Neuroscience and Movement Disorders, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, United Kingdom.
Carla
C
Cordivari
Department of Neuroscience, Biomedicine and Movement Science, University of Verona, Verona, Italy.
Michele
M
Tinazzi
Institute of Molecular and Clinical Sciences, St George's University of London, London, United Kingdom.
Mark J
MJ
Edwards
Sobell Department of Motor Neuroscience and Movement Disorders, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, United Kingdom.
Kailash P
KP
Bhatia
D000328:Adult; D020821:Dystonic Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006225:Hand / Q000503:physiopathology*; D018594:Human Body; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009146:Music; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D012399:Rotation; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*
Action observation; Dystonia; Focal hand; Mental rotation; Musician