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Focal dystonia

Focal dystonia is a neurological condition affecting a muscle or muscles in a part of the body causing an undesirable muscular contraction or twisting. For example, in focal hand dystonia, the fingers either curl into the palm or extend outward without control. This is caused by misfiring of neurons, causing the contractions. Though the condition expresses itself in a body part, it is thought that it actually originates in the basal ganglia, a portion of the brain. While usually painless, there are many instances when the condition does indeed cause pain for the patient. It is worth noting that focal dystonia often affects those who rely on fine motor skills - musicians, writers, surgeons, etc. more...

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For example, Leon Fleisher, of the Peabody Conservatory of Music, suffered from this affliction in his right hand. Another musician who had his career limited by focal dystonia is Alex Klein, formerly the first oboist of the Chicago Symphony. This condition can sometimes be treated, as it was with Fleisher, by giving periodic botox injections, which weaken the contracted muscle for a period of time, allowing the opposing muscles to move more normally but this is not successful in all cases.

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Neural plasticity in adult somatic sensory-motor systems
From SciTech Book News, 9/1/05

Neural plasticity in adult somatic sensory-motor systems.

Ed. by Ford F. Ebner.

Taylor & Francis

2005

273 pages

$149.95

Hardcover

Frontiers in neuroscience

QP383

Experience, learning, and damage are three constants in the changes wrought in nervous systems. In this collection of 11 articles, leading researchers examine how these changes relate to shifts in the movement and behavior of adults and how this information can be used to create brain-based interventions for the disabled. Paper topics include silent neurons in sensomotor cortices and their implications for cortical plasticity, the Vibrissa resonance hypothesis, spatial and temporal roles underlying rat barrel cones plasticity, cortical evidence, perceptual learning and referral in the tactile system, the effects of sensory deprivation in sensory function of the SI barrel cortex, the role of plasticity in sensomotor transformations, neural plasticity in the adult motor cortex, reorganization of the motor cortex after damage in the motor system, and a behavioral basis of focal hand dystonia through aberrant learning in the somatosensory cortex.

([c] 2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR)

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