Evidence of incomplete motor programming in Parkinson's disease

Journal/Book: J Motor Behav. 1995; 27: 1319 Eighteenth St NW, Washington, DC 20036-1802. Heldref Publications. 310-324.

Abstract: One of the essential questions regarding movement deficits in Parkinson's disease (PD) is whether they stem from impaired selecting and switching among movements, impaired use of predictive information to prepare movement, or impaired execution of movement. PD subjects (n = 9) and age-matched control subjects (n = 8) performed a cued, sequential-response RT task. The cue provided either no information, accurate information, or inaccurate information about the upcoming response. PD subjects used predictive information to prepare and to switch among movement sequences normally, but second and third key press latencies were prolonged in comparison with the first key press latency. In Experiments 2 and 3, the effects of choice set and sequence length on key press latencies were examined. These results provide evidence that PD subjects initiate movement before the entire response sequence is prepared. PD does not impair motor programming or execution processes themselves but impairs the smooth coordination of those processes.

Note: Article PJ Jennings, Mit, Dept Brain & Cognit Sci, Bldg E10-001, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA

Keyword(s): basal ganglia; choice RT; Parkinson's disease; sequential movement; HIERARCHICAL EDITOR MODEL; SEQUENTIAL MOVEMENTS; BASAL GANGLIA; ADVANCE INFORMATION; REACTION-TIME; EXECUTION; SEQUENCES; BRADYKINESIA; FORCE

Zurück | Weiter