Chillemi Gaetana, Calamuneri Alessandro, Morgante Francesca, Terranova Carmen, Rizzo Vincenzo, Girlanda Paolo, Ghilardi Maria Felice, Quartarone Angelo
Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Messina , Messina , Italy.
Department of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience, City University of New York Medical School , New York, NY , USA.
Front Neurol. 2017 Mar 3;8:66. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2017.00066. eCollection 2017.
Investigation of spatial and temporal cognitive processing in idiopathic cervical dystonia (CD) by means of specific tasks based on perception in time and space domains of visual and auditory stimuli.
Previous psychophysiological studies have investigated temporal and spatial characteristics of neural processing of sensory stimuli (mainly somatosensorial and visual), whereas the definition of such processing at higher cognitive level has not been sufficiently addressed. The impairment of time and space processing is likely driven by basal ganglia dysfunction. However, other cortical and subcortical areas, including cerebellum, may also be involved.
We tested 21 subjects with CD and 22 age-matched healthy controls with 4 recognition tasks exploring visuo-spatial, audio-spatial, visuo-temporal, and audio-temporal processing. Dystonic subjects were subdivided in three groups according to the head movement pattern type (lateral: Laterocollis, rotation: Torticollis) as well as the presence of tremor (Tremor).
We found significant alteration of spatial processing in Laterocollis subgroup compared to controls, whereas impairment of temporal processing was observed in Torticollis subgroup compared to controls.
Our results suggest that dystonia is associated with a dysfunction of temporal and spatial processing for visual and auditory stimuli that could underlie the well-known abnormalities in sequence learning. Moreover, we suggest that different movement pattern type might lead to different dysfunctions at cognitive level within dystonic population.
通过基于视觉和听觉刺激的时间和空间域感知的特定任务，研究特发性颈部肌张力障碍（CD）的时空认知加工。
以往的心理生理学研究调查了感觉刺激（主要是躯体感觉和视觉）神经加工的时间和空间特征，而在更高认知水平上这种加工的定义尚未得到充分探讨。时间和空间加工的损害可能由基底神经节功能障碍引起。然而，其他皮质和皮质下区域，包括小脑，也可能参与其中。
我们用4项识别任务测试了21名CD患者和22名年龄匹配的健康对照者，这些任务探索视觉空间、听觉空间、视觉时间和听觉时间加工。肌张力障碍患者根据头部运动模式类型（侧方：侧倾颈，旋转：斜颈）以及震颤的存在情况分为三组。
我们发现与对照组相比，侧倾颈亚组的空间加工有显著改变，而与对照组相比，斜颈亚组存在时间加工受损。
我们的结果表明，肌张力障碍与视觉和听觉刺激的时间和空间加工功能障碍有关，这可能是序列学习中众所周知的异常现象的基础。此外，我们认为不同的运动模式类型可能导致肌张力障碍人群在认知水平上出现不同的功能障碍。
