Abstract
Highlights
•Modulation of alpha/mu activity by proprioceptive stimuli is reduced in dystonia.
•Changes in mu modulation seen in typical development are diminished in dystonia.
•These abnormalities are common to genetic/idiopathic dystonias and dystonic CP.
Abstract
Dystonia is a disorder of sensorimotor integration associated with abnormal oscillatory activity within the basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical networks. Event-related changes in spectral EEG activity reflect cortical processing but are sparsely investigated in relation to sensorimotor processing in dystonia. This study investigates modulation of sensorimotor cortex EEG activity in response to a proprioceptive stimulus in children with dystonia and dystonic cerebral palsy (CP).
Proprioceptive stimuli, comprising brief stretches of the wrist flexors, were delivered via a robotic wrist interface to 30 young people with dystonia (20 isolated genetic/idiopathic and 10 dystonic CP) and 22 controls (mean age 12.7 years). Scalp EEG was recorded using the 10–20 international system and the relative change in post-stimulus power with respect to baseline was calculated for the alpha (8–12 Hz) and beta (14–30 Hz) frequency bands.
A clear developmental profile in event-related spectral changes was seen in controls. Controls showed a prominent early alpha/mu band event-related desynchronisation (ERD) followed by an event-related synchronisation (ERS) over the contralateral sensorimotor cortex following movement of either hand. The alpha ERD was significantly smaller in the dystonia groups for both dominant and non-dominant hand movement (ANCOVA across the 3 groups with age as covariate: dominant hand F(2,47) = 4.45 p = 0.017; non-dominant hand F(2,42) = 9.397 p < 0.001. Alpha ERS was significantly smaller in dystonia for the dominant hand (ANCOVA F(2,47) = 7.786 p = 0.001). There was no significant difference in ERD or ERS between genetic/idiopathic dystonia and dystonic CP.
Conclusion
Modulation of alpha/mu activity by a proprioceptive stimulus is reduced in dystonia, demonstrating a developmental abnormality of sensorimotor processing which is common to isolated genetic/idiopathic and acquired dystonia/dystonic CP.
•Modulation of alpha/mu activity by proprioceptive stimuli is reduced in dystonia.
•Changes in mu modulation seen in typical development are diminished in dystonia.
•These abnormalities are common to genetic/idiopathic dystonias and dystonic CP.
Abstract
Dystonia is a disorder of sensorimotor integration associated with abnormal oscillatory activity within the basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical networks. Event-related changes in spectral EEG activity reflect cortical processing but are sparsely investigated in relation to sensorimotor processing in dystonia. This study investigates modulation of sensorimotor cortex EEG activity in response to a proprioceptive stimulus in children with dystonia and dystonic cerebral palsy (CP).
Proprioceptive stimuli, comprising brief stretches of the wrist flexors, were delivered via a robotic wrist interface to 30 young people with dystonia (20 isolated genetic/idiopathic and 10 dystonic CP) and 22 controls (mean age 12.7 years). Scalp EEG was recorded using the 10–20 international system and the relative change in post-stimulus power with respect to baseline was calculated for the alpha (8–12 Hz) and beta (14–30 Hz) frequency bands.
A clear developmental profile in event-related spectral changes was seen in controls. Controls showed a prominent early alpha/mu band event-related desynchronisation (ERD) followed by an event-related synchronisation (ERS) over the contralateral sensorimotor cortex following movement of either hand. The alpha ERD was significantly smaller in the dystonia groups for both dominant and non-dominant hand movement (ANCOVA across the 3 groups with age as covariate: dominant hand F(2,47) = 4.45 p = 0.017; non-dominant hand F(2,42) = 9.397 p < 0.001. Alpha ERS was significantly smaller in dystonia for the dominant hand (ANCOVA F(2,47) = 7.786 p = 0.001). There was no significant difference in ERD or ERS between genetic/idiopathic dystonia and dystonic CP.
Conclusion
Modulation of alpha/mu activity by a proprioceptive stimulus is reduced in dystonia, demonstrating a developmental abnormality of sensorimotor processing which is common to isolated genetic/idiopathic and acquired dystonia/dystonic CP.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 102569 |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| Journal | NeuroImage: Clinical |
| Volume | 30 |
| Early online date | 19 Jan 2021 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 31 Mar 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by the Medical Research Council (MR/P006868/1 and MC_UU_12024/1), the Rosetrees Trust (A1598) and in part by the EU H2020 ICT-871767 REHYB project.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors