Abnormalities of motor timing in Huntington's disease.

The ability of patients with Huntington's disease (HD) and control subjects to produce rhythmic finger tapping movements at target frequencies (1-5 Hz) signalled by auditory cues, and to sustain the tapping tempo following sudden withdrawal of cues, was investigated. HD performance, in both the presence and absence of cues, was characterised by, (i) marked irregularity of instantaneous tapping rates and (ii) a tendency to tap too slowly at higher (3-5 Hz) frequency targets and too rapidly at low target frequencies. Analysis of the variability of inter-tap intervals, during uncued tapping at a target rate of 1.8 Hz, using Wing and Kristofferson's model of motor timing (Wing AM, Kristofferson AB. Percept. Psychophys. 1973; 14: 5-12), indicated disturbances of both hypothetical 'clock' and 'motor implementation' systems in HD.

[1]  F. W. Cody,et al.  The accuracy and precision of timing of self-paced, repetitive movements in subjects with Parkinson's disease. , 1996, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[2]  A. Wing.  Effects of type of movement on the temporal precision of response sequences , 1977 .

[3]  M. T. Turvey,et al.  ‘Clock’ and ‘motor’ components in absolute coordination of rhythmic movements , 1989, Neuroscience.

[4]  J. Penney,et al.  The functional anatomy of basal ganglia disorders , 1989, Trends in Neurosciences.

[5]  C. Marsden,et al.  Performance of simultaneous movements in patients with Parkinson's disease. , 1986, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[6]  J. Penney,et al.  Preferential loss of striato‐external pallidal projection neurons in presymptomatic Huntington's disease , 1992, Annals of neurology.

[7]  S. Keele,et al.  Motor Disorder and the Timing of Repetitive Movements a , 1984, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

[8]  D. Denny-Brown.  Diseases of the basal ganglia. Their relation to disorders of movement. , 1960, Lancet.

[9]  A. Kristofferson,et al.  Response delays and the timing of discrete motor responses , 1973 .

[10]  H. Freund,et al.  Does tremor pace repetitive voluntary motor behavior in parkinson's disease? , 1991, Annals of neurology.

[11]  P. Thompson,et al.  The coexistence of bradykinesia and chorea in Huntington's disease and its implications for theories of basal ganglia control of movement. , 1988, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[12]  H. Freund,et al.  Impairment of rapid movement in Huntington's disease. , 1987, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[13]  A. Starr,et al.  A disorder of rapid eye movements in Huntington's chorea. , 1967, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[14]  C. Marsden,et al.  Clinical neurophysiology of muscle jerks: myoclonus, chorea, and tics. , 1983, Advances in neurology.

[15]  M. Hayden,et al.  Huntington’s Chorea , 1981, Springer London.

[16]  J. Mattingley,et al.  An evaluation of the role of internal cues in the pathogenesis of parkinsonian hypokinesia. , 1993, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[17]  J A Obeso,et al.  Performance of repetitive wrist movements in Parkinson's disease. , 1992, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[18]  H. Freund,et al.  Lesions of premotor cortex in man. , 1985, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[19]  C. Marsden,et al.  Disturbance of sequential movements in patients with Parkinson's disease. , 1987, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[20]  W. Koller,et al.  The gait abnormality of Huntington's disease , 1985, Neurology.

[21]  E. Parati,et al.  Effect of neuroleptic treatment on involuntary movements and motor performances in Huntington's disease. , 1984, Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry.

[22]  C. Marsden.  The mysterious motor function of the basal ganglia , 1982, Neurology.

[23]  R J Leigh,et al.  The measurement of abnormal movement: methods developed for Huntington's disease. , 1983, Neurobehavioral toxicology and teratology.

[24]  J. Rothwell.  Control of Human Voluntary Movement , 1994, Springer Netherlands.

[25]  H. Nagasaki,et al.  Disturbances of rhythm formation in patients with hemispheric lesion. , 1981, The Tohoku journal of experimental medicine.

[26]  S. Keele,et al.  Timing Functions of The Cerebellum , 1989, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[27]  J. Tanji,et al.  The role of premotor cortex and the supplementary motor area in the temporal control of movement in man. , 1993, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[28]  M. Hallett,et al.  Physiological observations in Sydenham's chorea. , 1981, Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry.

[29]  H. Narabayashi,et al.  Disturbances of Rhythm Formation in Patients with Parkinson's Disease: Part I. Characteristics of Tapping Response to the Periodic Signals , 1978, Perceptual and motor skills.

[30]  H Nagasaki,et al.  Disturbances of Rhythm Formation in Patients with Parkinson's Disease: Part II. A Forced Oscillation Model , 1978, Perceptual and motor skills.

[31]  S. Folstein,et al.  The diagnosis of Huntington's disease , 1986, Neurology.

[32]  W. Schady,et al.  The influence of external timing cues upon the rhythm of voluntary movements in Parkinson's disease. , 1993, Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry.

[33]  A. Wing,et al.  Basal ganglia lesions and psychological analyses of the control of voluntary movement. , 1984, Ciba Foundation symposium.

[34]  C. Andrews.  Influence of dystonia on the response to long-term L-dopa therapy in Parkinson's disease , 1973, Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry.