Mental rotation and working memory in musicians' dystonia

TY - JOUR

T1 - Mental rotation and working memory in musicians' dystonia

AU - Erro, Roberto

AU - Hirschbichler, Stephanie T

AU - Ricciardi, Lucia

AU - Ryterska, Agata

AU - Antelmi, Elena

AU - Ganos, Christos

AU - Cordivari, Carla

AU - Tinazzi, Michele

AU - Edwards, Mark J

AU - Bhatia, Kailash P

N1 - Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

PY - 2016/11

Y1 - 2016/11

N2 - BACKGROUND: Mental rotation of body parts engages cortical-subcortical areas that are actually involved in the execution of a movement. Musicians' dystonia is a type of focal hand dystonia that is grouped together with writer's cramp under the rubric of "occupational dystonia", but it is unclear to which extent these two disorders share common pathophysiological mechanisms. Previous research has demonstrated patients with writer's cramp to have deficits in mental rotation of body parts. It is unknown whether patients with musicians' dystonia would display similar deficits, reinforcing the concept of shared pathophysiology.METHODS: Eight patients with musicians' dystonia and eight healthy musicians matched for age, gender and musical education, performed a number of tasks assessing mental rotation of body parts and objects as well as verbal and spatial working memories abilities.RESULTS: There were no differences between patients and healthy musicians as to accuracy and reaction times in any of the tasks.CONCLUSIONS: Patients with musicians' dystonia have intact abilities in mentally rotating body parts, suggesting that this disorder relies on a highly selective disruption of movement planning and execution that manifests only upon playing a specific instrument. We further demonstrated that mental rotation of body parts and objects engages, at least partially, different cognitive networks.

AB - BACKGROUND: Mental rotation of body parts engages cortical-subcortical areas that are actually involved in the execution of a movement. Musicians' dystonia is a type of focal hand dystonia that is grouped together with writer's cramp under the rubric of "occupational dystonia", but it is unclear to which extent these two disorders share common pathophysiological mechanisms. Previous research has demonstrated patients with writer's cramp to have deficits in mental rotation of body parts. It is unknown whether patients with musicians' dystonia would display similar deficits, reinforcing the concept of shared pathophysiology.METHODS: Eight patients with musicians' dystonia and eight healthy musicians matched for age, gender and musical education, performed a number of tasks assessing mental rotation of body parts and objects as well as verbal and spatial working memories abilities.RESULTS: There were no differences between patients and healthy musicians as to accuracy and reaction times in any of the tasks.CONCLUSIONS: Patients with musicians' dystonia have intact abilities in mentally rotating body parts, suggesting that this disorder relies on a highly selective disruption of movement planning and execution that manifests only upon playing a specific instrument. We further demonstrated that mental rotation of body parts and objects engages, at least partially, different cognitive networks.

U2 - 10.1016/j.bandc.2016.09.008

DO - 10.1016/j.bandc.2016.09.008

M3 - SCORING: Journal article

C2 - 27693997

VL - 109

SP - 124

EP - 129

JO - BRAIN COGNITION

JF - BRAIN COGNITION

SN - 0278-2626

ER -