Abstract
Narrative Review
Watching a concert pianist perform a Chopin etude or a violin soloist perform a Paganini
caprice, one cannot help but be awed by the miracle of motor control in man. These
“athletes of the small muscles” are susceptible, however, to a condition known as
focal, task-specific dystonia (FTSD), a disorder of motor control in which the hands
that perform these exquisite maneuvers disobey their master's command. Affected patients
offer a unique window to investigate motor learning and aberrant cerebral plasticity.
Effective treatments including sensory rehabilitation and botulinum toxin injection
offer real hope for symptomatic relief and also afford scientists the opportunity
to investigate sensorimotor networks in the normal and abnormal state.
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JHT Read for Credit
Quiz: Article # 123
Record your answers on the Return Answer Form found on the tear-out coupon at the back of this issue. There is only one best answer for each question.
- #1.__________ is at the core of the potential to treat hand dystonia clinically
- a.the determination of the patient
- b.the determination of the therapist
- c.the combined determination of the therapist and patient
- d.cerebral placticity
- a.
- #2.A review of the literature on FTSDmh revealed that
- a.about 80% of cases had a predominate emotional involvement
- b.about 20% of cases had bilateral involvement
- c.about 80% of cases were male
- d.about 50% of cases were female and 50% male
- a.
- #3.The left hand was more often (than the right hand) involved in
- a.flutists
- b.piano players
- c.plucked string players
- d.drummers
- a.
- #4.The onset of FTSDmh is typically seen
- a.during skill acquisition
- b.once motor skills have been acquired
- c.during practice sessions, but not during live performance
- d.during live performance, but not during practice sessions
- a.
- #5.Most often FTSDmh
- a.starts in multiple digits and does not spread to other digits
- b.starts in a single digit and spreads to adjacent digits
- c.starts in a single digit and spreads by skipping to a non-adjacent digit
- d.starts in a single digit and spreads to the same digit in the opposite hand
- a.
When submitting to the HTCC for re-certification, please batch your JHT RFC certificates in groups of 3 or more to get full credit.
Article info
Publication history
Published online: March 09, 2009
Identification
Copyright
© 2009 Hanley & Belfus. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
