Dystonia is a disorder of sensorimotor integration associated with abnormal oscillatory activity within the basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical networks. Event-related changes in spectral EEG activity reflect cortical processing but are sparsely investigated in relation to sensorimotor processing in dystonia. This study investigates modulation of sensorimotor cortex EEG activity in response to a proprioceptive stimulus in children with dystonia and dystonic cerebral palsy (CP).

Proprioceptive stimuli, comprising brief stretches of the wrist flexors, were delivered via a robotic wrist interface to 30 young people with dystonia (20 isolated genetic/idiopathic and 10 dystonic CP) and 22 controls (mean age 12.7 years). Scalp EEG was recorded using the 10–20 international system and the relative change in post-stimulus power with respect to baseline was calculated for the alpha (8–12 Hz) and beta (14–30 Hz) frequency bands.

A clear developmental profile in event-related spectral changes was seen in controls. Controls showed a prominent early alpha/mu band event-related desynchronisation (ERD) followed by an event-related synchronisation (ERS) over the contralateral sensorimotor cortex following movement of either hand. The alpha ERD was significantly smaller in the dystonia groups for both dominant and non-dominant hand movement (ANCOVA across the 3 groups with age as covariate: dominant hand F(2,47) = 4.45 p = 0.017; non-dominant hand F(2,42) = 9.397 p < 0.001. Alpha ERS was significantly smaller in dystonia for the dominant hand (ANCOVA F(2,47) = 7.786 p = 0.001). There was no significant difference in ERD or ERS between genetic/idiopathic dystonia and dystonic CP.

Conclusion

Modulation of alpha/mu activity by a proprioceptive stimulus is reduced in dystonia, demonstrating a developmental abnormality of sensorimotor processing which is common to isolated genetic/idiopathic and acquired dystonia/dystonic CP.

中文翻译：

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孤立性肌张力障碍和肌张力障碍性脑瘫儿童感觉运动处理及其发展的脑电图测量异常

肌张力障碍是一种感觉运动整合障碍，与基底神经节-丘脑-皮质网络内的异常振荡活动有关。频谱 EEG 活动的事件相关变化反映了皮层处理，但与肌张力障碍中的感觉运动处理相关的研究很少。这项研究调查了感觉运动皮层 EEG 活动对肌张力障碍和肌张力障碍性脑瘫 (CP) 儿童本体感受刺激的调节。

本体感觉刺激，包括腕屈肌的短暂伸展，通过机器人腕部接口传递给 30 名患有肌张力障碍的年轻人（20 名孤立的遗传/特发性 CP 和 10 名肌张力障碍 CP）和 22 名对照（平均年龄 12.7 岁）。使用 10-20 国际系统记录头皮 EEG，并计算 alpha (8-12 Hz) 和 beta (14-30 Hz) 频带的刺激后功率相对于基线的相对变化。

在对照中观察到与事件相关的光谱变化的清晰发育特征。对照显示出显着的早期 alpha/mu 波段事件相关去同步化 (ERD)，然后是在任何一只手运动后对侧感觉运动皮层上的事件相关同步化 (ERS)。对于优势和非优势手部运动，肌张力障碍组的 α ERD 均显着较小（以年龄为协变量的 3 个组的 ANCOVA：优势手 F(2,47) = 4.45 p = 0.017；非优势手 F( 2,42) = 9.397 p < 0.001. 优势手肌张力障碍的 Alpha ERS ​​显着更小（ANCOVA F(2,47) = 7.786 p = 0.001）。遗传性/特发性肌张力障碍之间的 ERD 或 ERS ​​没有显着差异和肌张力障碍 CP。

结论

本体感觉刺激对 α/mu 活动的调节在肌张力障碍中减少，表明感觉运动处理的发育异常，这在孤立的遗传/特发性和获得性肌张力障碍/肌张力障碍 CP 中很常见。