The Fitts task reveals impairments in planning and online control of movement in Friedreich ataxia: reduced cerebellar-cortico connectivity?

Abstract Friedreich ataxia (FRDA) is the most common of the inherited ataxias. We have suggested that people with FRDA may have impairment in cognitive and/or psychomotor capacity either due to disturbance of projections of the cerebellum to the cortex, direct cortical pathology or perhaps both. To...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Neuroscience 2011-09, Vol.192, p.382-390
Main Authors: Corben, L.A, Georgiou-Karistianis, N, Bradshaw, J.L, Hocking, D.R, Churchyard, A.J, Delatycki, M.B
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Biological and medical sciences
Cerebellum - physiopathology
Cerebral Cortex - physiopathology
Female
Fitts law
Friedreich ataxia
Friedreich Ataxia - physiopathology
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
index of difficulty
kinematics
Male
Middle Aged
movement
Movement - physiology
Neural Pathways - pathology
Neurology
Psychomotor Performance - physiology
Task Performance and Analysis
Vertebrates: nervous system and sense organs
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Summary:Abstract Friedreich ataxia (FRDA) is the most common of the inherited ataxias. We have suggested that people with FRDA may have impairment in cognitive and/or psychomotor capacity either due to disturbance of projections of the cerebellum to the cortex, direct cortical pathology or perhaps both. To further explore this possibility, we used a movement task incorporating Fitts' Law, a robust description of the relationship between movement time and accuracy in goal-directed aiming movements. By manipulating task difficulty, according to target size and distance, we were able to quantify processes related to motor planning in 10 individuals with FRDA and 10 matched control participants. Compared to control participants, people with FRDA were significantly disadvantaged in terms of movement time to targets with an increasing index of difficulty. Successful completion of this task requires both preplanning of movement and online error detection and correction. The cerebellum and its connections to the frontal cortex via cerebro-ponto-cerebello-thalamo-cerebral loops are fundamental to both processes. These results lend further support to our contention that in FRDA these loops are impaired, reflecting a failure to access prefrontal/anterior regions necessary for effective management of preplanning of movement and online error correction.
ISSN:0306-4522
1873-7544
DOI:10.1016/j.neuroscience.2011.06.057