Myoclonus and a number of other rapid involuntary movements have been difficult to classify clinically. Consolidation of patient material obtained outside of NIH with continuing analysis of new cases at NIH has led to new classifications and pathophysiological insights. Conclusions have been drawn about myoclonus of epileptic nature, adult onset tic and startle. Tremors are also difficult to classify. In studying the physiological aspects of these disorders, we have identified a new descriptor of cerebellar postural tremor which may help distinguish it from other postural action tremors. The amplitude of cerebellar postural tremor appears to depend on the precise posture of the limbs, and, in particular, is highest when the arms are near the body and the hands are pointing toward each other. The physiological implications of this are being explored. We have also studied several patients with orthostatic tremor, a curious, newly described disorder of tremor of the legs only when standing. Our preliminary studies suggest that this is a disorder of the balance mechanism. We plan to continue these studies and add PET scanning as a physiological tool to our battery of clinical neurophysiological methods to help identify abnormal areas in the brains of patients with involuntary movements.
| Vanbellingen, T; Lungu, C; Lopez, G et al. (2012) Short and valid assessment of apraxia in Parkinson's disease. Parkinsonism Relat Disord 18:348-50 |
| Zhuang, P; Hallett, M; Zhang, X et al. (2009) Neuronal activity in the globus pallidus internus in patients with tics. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 80:1075-81 |
| Nahab, Fatta B; Hattori, Noriaki; Saad, Ziad S et al. (2009) Contagious yawning and the frontal lobe: an fMRI study. Hum Brain Mapp 30:1744-51 |
| Bohlhalter, S; Hattori, N; Wheaton, L et al. (2009) Gesture subtype-dependent left lateralization of praxis planning: an event-related fMRI study. Cereb Cortex 19:1256-62 |
| Wheaton, Lewis A; Bohlhalter, Stephan; Nolte, Guido et al. (2008) Cortico-cortical networks in patients with ideomotor apraxia as revealed by EEG coherence analysis. Neurosci Lett 433:87-92 |
| Lerner, Alicja; Bagic, Anto; Hanakawa, Takashi et al. (2008) Involvement of Insula and Cingulate Cortices in Control and Suppression of Natural Urges. Cereb Cortex : |
| Buxbaum, Laurel J; Haaland, Kathleen Y; Hallett, Mark et al. (2008) Treatment of limb apraxia: moving forward to improved action. Am J Phys Med Rehabil 87:149-61 |
| Alaedini, Armin; Okamoto, Haruka; Briani, Chiara et al. (2007) Immune cross-reactivity in celiac disease: anti-gliadin antibodies bind to neuronal synapsin I. J Immunol 178:6590-5 |
| Voon, Valerie; Lang, Anthony E; Hallett, Mark (2007) Diagnosing psychogenic movement disorders-which criteria should be used in clinical practice? Nat Clin Pract Neurol 3:134-5 |
| Bruno, M K; Lee, H-Y; Auburger, G W J et al. (2007) Genotype-phenotype correlation of paroxysmal nonkinesigenic dyskinesia. Neurology 68:1782-9 |
Showing the most recent 10 out of 41 publications
