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Mental rotation and working memory in musicians' dystonia

Erro, R; Hirschbichler, ST; Ricciardi, L; Ryterska, A; Antelmi, E; Ganos, C; Cordivari, C; ... Bhatia, KP; + view all (2016) Mental rotation and working memory in musicians' dystonia. Brain and Cognition , 109 pp. 124-129. 10.1016/j.bandc.2016.09.008. Green open access

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Abstract

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.

Type: Article
Title: Mental rotation and working memory in musicians' dystonia
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2016.09.008
Publisher version: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandc.2016.09.008
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript/version of record. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
Keywords: Musician, Focal hand, Dystonia, Mental rotation, Action observation
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology > Clinical and Movement Neurosciences
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1520601
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