DYSCAR: Characterization of Dystonia

Summary

Dystonia is a rare disease leading to a severe handicap. It can be of primary or secondary origin. It is characterized by sustained muscle contractions, frequently causing twisting and repetitive movements or abnormal postures. These disorders are believed to be caused by some dysfunction of the basal ganglia (BG) circuitry, but the mechanisms are largely unknown.

A better understanding of the disorder requires significant improvements of its phenomenological description in relation to aetiology. We want to identify specific motor signatures of different forms of dystonia. To that aim, we will ask patients to perform movements of various complexities, while recording chronometric, kinematics and EMG data. The characteristics of the patients' movements will be compared to those of matched control subjects. We will examine abnormal co-activation in distal and proximal muscles to evaluate the characteristics of the loss of selectivity of the motor command in mobile vs. fixed dystonia. Consistency of the motor output patterns will be compared in three groups of patients. We will also study possible cognitive and limbic components of the disease, examining the influence of cognitive and emotional loads on movement production. Eventually we want to refine the criteria used to classify different forms of the disease, thus enabling clinicians to better predict the likely outcome of particular therapeutic procedures.

Conditions

• Dystonia
• Parkinson Disease

Interventions

OTHER

EMG and Kinematics recording

The experimental protocol envisages the recording of the movement and the bilateral recording of activity EMG during three types of tasks: discrete driving tasks: movements of inflection and extension of the wrist car-generated, or produced in answer to an imperative stimulus try driving repetitive: sequence of inflection-extension of the wrist unilateral, bilateral in phase and bilateral in opposition of phase. try driving complexes: movement of inflection and extension of the wrist with concurrent realization of a driving task controlatérale different, or of a cognitive task. For the Parkinsonian patients, these various tests will be carried out twice: without antiparkinsonian treatment ("off") and under treatment ("one").

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Institut National de la Santé Et de la Recherche Médicale, France

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• University Hospital, Grenoble

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Bettina DEBU, Professor · University J Fourier, INSERM U 318

• Pierre POLLAK, Professor · University J Fourier, INSERM U318, Grenoble University Hospital

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

75 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2006-08-31

Completion

2010-12-31

Countries

• France

Study Locations