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Pathophysiology of writer’s cramp: an exploratory study on task-specificity and non-motor symptoms using an extended fine-motor testing battery

BACKGROUND: Writer’s cramp (WC) is a task-specific focal dystonia which manifests itself as abnormal postures interfering with motor performance. As the spread of motor symptoms remains controversial and non-motor symptoms are widely discussed, in this exploratory study, we explore the pathophysiolo...

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Autores principales: Amouzandeh, Ali, Grossbach, Michael, Hermsdörfer, Joachim, Altenmüller, Eckart
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5547537/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28794890
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40734-017-0060-4
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author Amouzandeh, Ali
Grossbach, Michael
Hermsdörfer, Joachim
Altenmüller, Eckart
author_facet Amouzandeh, Ali
Grossbach, Michael
Hermsdörfer, Joachim
Altenmüller, Eckart
author_sort Amouzandeh, Ali
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Writer’s cramp (WC) is a task-specific focal dystonia which manifests itself as abnormal postures interfering with motor performance. As the spread of motor symptoms remains controversial and non-motor symptoms are widely discussed, in this exploratory study, we explore the pathophysiology of WC, focusing on task-specificity and the psychological profiles of WC patients. METHODS: In 14 right-handed WC patients and matched controls, we assessed motor control by applying motor performance tests (Vienna Test Series), as well as using writing analysis and grip-force measurements. Moreover, detailed psychological factors were assessed. Classification trees were used to distinguish patients from controls. RESULTS: The total duration of writing and the vertical writing frequency of the pen are the most important variables to split the data set successfully into patients and controls. No other variables concerning motor performance tests, grip-force measurements or psychological factors correctly separated patients and controls. CONCLUSIONS: Only variables from the writing tasks successfully separated patients and controls, indicating a strong task-specificity of WC in our patient group. Future research should be performed with larger samples of untreated WC patients in early stages of impairment, without any secondary motor disturbances, to verify our findings.
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spelling pubmed-55475372017-08-09 Pathophysiology of writer’s cramp: an exploratory study on task-specificity and non-motor symptoms using an extended fine-motor testing battery Amouzandeh, Ali Grossbach, Michael Hermsdörfer, Joachim Altenmüller, Eckart J Clin Mov Disord Research Article BACKGROUND: Writer’s cramp (WC) is a task-specific focal dystonia which manifests itself as abnormal postures interfering with motor performance. As the spread of motor symptoms remains controversial and non-motor symptoms are widely discussed, in this exploratory study, we explore the pathophysiology of WC, focusing on task-specificity and the psychological profiles of WC patients. METHODS: In 14 right-handed WC patients and matched controls, we assessed motor control by applying motor performance tests (Vienna Test Series), as well as using writing analysis and grip-force measurements. Moreover, detailed psychological factors were assessed. Classification trees were used to distinguish patients from controls. RESULTS: The total duration of writing and the vertical writing frequency of the pen are the most important variables to split the data set successfully into patients and controls. No other variables concerning motor performance tests, grip-force measurements or psychological factors correctly separated patients and controls. CONCLUSIONS: Only variables from the writing tasks successfully separated patients and controls, indicating a strong task-specificity of WC in our patient group. Future research should be performed with larger samples of untreated WC patients in early stages of impairment, without any secondary motor disturbances, to verify our findings. BioMed Central 2017-08-08 /pmc/articles/PMC5547537/ /pubmed/28794890 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40734-017-0060-4 Text en © The Author(s). 2017 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research Article
Amouzandeh, Ali
Grossbach, Michael
Hermsdörfer, Joachim
Altenmüller, Eckart
Pathophysiology of writer’s cramp: an exploratory study on task-specificity and non-motor symptoms using an extended fine-motor testing battery
title Pathophysiology of writer’s cramp: an exploratory study on task-specificity and non-motor symptoms using an extended fine-motor testing battery
title_full Pathophysiology of writer’s cramp: an exploratory study on task-specificity and non-motor symptoms using an extended fine-motor testing battery
title_fullStr Pathophysiology of writer’s cramp: an exploratory study on task-specificity and non-motor symptoms using an extended fine-motor testing battery
title_full_unstemmed Pathophysiology of writer’s cramp: an exploratory study on task-specificity and non-motor symptoms using an extended fine-motor testing battery
title_short Pathophysiology of writer’s cramp: an exploratory study on task-specificity and non-motor symptoms using an extended fine-motor testing battery
title_sort pathophysiology of writer’s cramp: an exploratory study on task-specificity and non-motor symptoms using an extended fine-motor testing battery
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5547537/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28794890
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40734-017-0060-4
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