Sadnicka, A; Wiestler, T; Butler, K; Altenmuller, E; Edwards, MJ; Ejaz, N; Diedrichsen, J
(2024)
Boundaries of task-specificity: bimanual finger dexterity is reduced in musician's dystonia.
Sci Rep, 14 (1).
p. 15972.
ISSN 2045-2322
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-65888-3
SGUL Authors: Sadnicka, Anna
Abstract
Task-specific dystonia leads to loss of sensorimotor control for a particular motor skill. Although focal in nature, it is hugely disabling and can terminate professional careers in musicians. Biomarkers for underlying mechanism and severity are much needed. In this study, we designed a keyboard device that measured the forces generated at all fingertips during individual finger presses. By reliably quantifying overflow to other fingers in the instructed (enslaving) and contralateral hand (mirroring) we explored whether this task could differentiate between musicians with and without dystonia. 20 right-handed professional musicians (11 with dystonia) generated isometric flexion forces with the instructed finger to match 25%, 50% or 75% of maximal voluntary contraction for that finger. Enslaving was estimated as a linear slope of the forces applied across all instructed/uninstructed finger combinations. Musicians with dystonia had a small but robust loss of finger dexterity. There was increased enslaving and mirroring, primarily during use of the symptomatic hand (enslaving p = 0.003; mirroring p = 0.016), and to a lesser extent with the asymptomatic hand (enslaving p = 0.052; mirroring p = 0.062). Increased enslaving and mirroring were seen across all combinations of finger pairs. In addition, enslaving was exaggerated across symptomatic fingers when more than one finger was clinically affected. Task-specific dystonia therefore appears to express along a gradient, most severe in the affected skill with subtle and general motor control dysfunction in the background. Recognition of this provides a more nuanced understanding of the sensorimotor control deficits at play and can inform therapeutic options for this highly disabling disorder.
Item Type: |
Article
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Additional Information: |
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
© The Author(s) 2024 |
Keywords: |
Dexterity, Finger individuation, Motor control, Musicians’ dystonia, Task-specific dystonia, Humans, Fingers, Male, Adult, Female, Dystonic Disorders, Music, Motor Skills, Middle Aged, Young Adult, Fingers, Humans, Dystonic Disorders, Motor Skills, Music, Adult, Middle Aged, Female, Male, Young Adult, Task-specific dystonia, Musicians' dystonia, Dexterity, Motor control, Finger individuation |
SGUL Research Institute / Research Centre: |
Academic Structure > REF 2021 user group |
Journal or Publication Title: |
Sci Rep |
ISSN: |
2045-2322 |
Language: |
eng |
Dates: |
Date | Event |
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10 July 2024 | Published | 25 June 2024 | Accepted |
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Publisher License: |
Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0 |
PubMed ID: |
38987302 |
Web of Science ID: |
WOS:001270506400060 |
![](http://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/2745237/img/27842) |
Go to PubMed abstract |
URI: |
https://openaccess.sgul.ac.uk/id/eprint/116774 |
Publisher's version: |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-65888-3 |
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