Motor Cortex Activation During Writing in Focal Upper-Limb Dystonia: An fNIRS Study.
Renata PrôaJoana BalardinDanilo D de FariaArtur M PauloJoão R SatoCarlos A BaltazarVanderci BorgesSonia M C Azevedo SilvaHenrique Ballalai FerrazPatricia de Carvalho AguiarPublished in: Neurorehabilitation and neural repair (2021)
Overactivity of contralateral M1 and S1 in dystonia suggest a reduced specificity of the task-related cortical areas, whereas ipsilateral activation possibly indicates a primary disorder of the motor cortex or an endophenotypic pattern. To our knowledge, this is the first study using fNIRS to assess cortical activity in dystonia during the writing task under natural settings, outlining the potential of this technique for monitoring sensory and motor retraining in dystonia rehabilitation.