Dysfunction in emotion processing underlies functional (psychogenic) dystonia
- 10 November 2017
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Wiley in Movement Disorders
- Vol. 33 (1), 136-145
- https://doi.org/10.1002/mds.27217
Abstract
Objective We sought to determine whether abnormalities in emotion processing underlie functional (psychogenic) dystonia, one of the most common functional movement disorders. Methods Motor and emotion circuits were examined in 12 participants with functional dystonia, 12 with primary organic dystonia, and 25 healthy controls using functional magnetic resonance imaging at 4T and a finger‐tapping task (motor task), a basic emotion‐recognition task (emotional faces task), and an intense‐emotion stimuli task. Results There were no differences in motor task activation between groups. In the faces task, when compared with the other groups, functional dystonia patients showed areas of decreased activation in the right middle temporal gyrus and bilateral precuneus and increased activation in the right inferior frontal gyrus, bilateral occipital cortex and fusiform gyrus, and bilateral cerebellum. In the intense‐emotion task, when compared with the other groups, functional dystonia patients showed decreased activation in the left insular and left motor cortices (compared to organic dystonia, they showed an additional decrease in activation in the right opercular cortex and right motor cortex) and increased activation in the left fusiform gyrus. Conclusions Functional dystonia patients exhibited stimulus‐dependent altered activation in networks involved in motor preparation and execution, spatial cognition, and attentional control. These results support the presence of network dysfunction in functional dystonia. © 2017 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder SocietyKeywords
Funding Information
- National Institutes of Health (NS065701, 1K23MH092735, K23 NS052468, K01 DA020485)
- NIH Clinical Center
This publication has 51 references indexed in Scilit:
- Task-Free Functional MRI in Cervical Dystonia Reveals Multi-Network Changes That Partially Normalize with Botulinum ToxinPLOS ONE, 2013
- The functional neuroimaging correlates of psychogenic versus organic dystoniaBrain, 2013
- A Bayesian model of shape and appearance for subcortical brain segmentationNeuroImage, 2011
- The functional neuroanatomy of dystoniaNeurobiology of Disease, 2011
- Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Brain Activation in Bipolar Mania: Evidence for Disruption of the Ventrolateral Prefrontal-Amygdala Emotional PathwayBiological Psychiatry, 2011
- Emotional stimuli and motor conversion disorderBrain, 2010
- The involuntary nature of conversion disorderNeurology, 2010
- Psychogenic movement disorders: Aetiology, phenomenology, neuroanatomical correlates and therapeutic approachesNeuroImage, 2009
- Abnormal sensorimotor plasticity in organic but not in psychogenic dystoniaBrain, 2009
- The NimStim set of facial expressions: Judgments from untrained research participantsPsychiatry Research, 2009