Physiological Analysis Of Voluntary Movement

该项目的目标是更多地了解正常人和自主运动障碍患者的运动控制，如帕金森病、小脑性共济失调、中风引起的偏瘫和肌紧张性障碍。我们使用的工具包括临床神经生理学方法，如脑电图、肌电图、经颅磁刺激和正电子发射断层扫描和功能磁共振成像的神经成像。该科目前活跃的项目包括帕金森运动迟缓的分析。S疾病、偏瘫康复的研究和肌张力障碍的生理学。该分支的一个主要科学目标是了解并可能影响先天性或获得性中枢神经系统病变患者的皮层重组。一种多模式的方法（PET、功能性MRI、脑电图和经颅磁刺激的神经成像）被用于确定个体中风患者功能性脑地形的长期重组模式。结果表明，损伤半球的功能恢复效果最好，而对侧半球的功能恢复效果较差。为了解释为什么人们更容易向后摔倒而不是向前摔倒，我们一直在研究被平移推装置干扰的受试者。我们发现平衡的限制可以通过身体质心的位置和速度来预测。不对称的跌倒倾向部分是由于脚的功能长度不对称。我们对肌张力障碍患者不同运动的脑电图活动进行了研究。结果表明，随着复杂性的增加，运动相关电位并没有发生预期的变化。这可能表明在选择要做的动作的过程中存在问题。我们正在使用经颅磁刺激来研究发生在没有选择特定运动的肌肉中的抑制过程。似乎有多种机制。我们想看看是否有任何类型的抑制在肌张力障碍患者中是有缺陷的。我们也在对肌张力障碍患者及其无症状亲属进行临床神经生理学研究，看看我们是否能找到肌张力障碍遗传倾向的标记。我们已经进行了一项研究，看看提高感觉敏锐度的训练是否会改善局灶性肢体肌张力障碍患者。结果确实显示了感觉敏锐度和运动表现的改善，但运动表现的改善程度有限。

The goal of this project is to learn more about the control of movement in normal humans and in patients with voluntary movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease, cerebellar ataxia, hemiplegia from stroke and dystonia. The tools we use include clinical neurophysiological methods such as electroencephalography, electromyography, and transcranial magnetic stimulation and neuroimaging with positron emission tomography and functional magnetic resonance imaging. Currently active projects in the Section include analysis of the bradykinesia in Parkinson?s disease, studies of recovery from hemiplegia, and the physiology of dystonia. One major scientific target of the Branch is to understand and possibly influence cortical reorganization in patients with congenital or acquired lesions of the central nervous system. A multi-modality approach (neuroimaging with PET and functional MRI, EEG, and transcranial magnetic stimulation) is being used to determine patterns of long-term reorganization of functional brain topography in individual stroke patients. The analysis reveals the best recovery of function comes from reorganization of the damaged hemisphere rather than the contralateral one. In order to explain why people more likely to fall backward than forward, we have been studing subjects perturbed by a translational pushing device. We found that limitations to balance can be predicted by position and velocity of the center of mass of the body. Asymmetry of the tendency to fall is due in part to the asymmetry of the functional foot length. We have done studies of the EEG activity associated with different movements in patients with dystonia. The results indicate that the expected change in movement related potentials with increased complexity does not occur. This may indicate a problem in the process of selection of movements to be made. We are using transcranial magnetic stimulation to investigate the processes of inhibition that occur in muscles that are not selected for particular movements. There appear to be multiple mechanisms. We intend to see if inhibition of any type is defective in patients with dystonia. We are also doing clinical neurophysiological studies of patients with dystonia and their asymptomatic relatives, looking to see if we can find a marker of a genetic propensity to develop dystonia. We have conducted a study to see if training to improve sensory acuity would improve patients with focal limb dystonia. Results do demonstrate improvement in both sensory acuity and motor performance, but the improvement in motor performance is limited in magnitude.