The impact of cerebellar and basal ganglia dysfunction on the accuracy and variability of motor timing
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1
Cardiff University, School of Psychology, United Kingdom
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2
Vanderbilt University, United States
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3
University of Virginia, United States
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4
Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, United Kingdom
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5
University College London Institute of Neurology, United Kingdom
Studies in motor timing have shown that the basal ganglia and cerebellum play an important role in temporal processing. Timing studies in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and cerebellar/ataxic disorders (CD) contrast the roles of the basal ganglia and cerebellum in motor timing. Here, we used a synchronization–continuation task to compare accuracy and variability of motor timing during repetitive tapping in patients with PD and CD as well as healthy controls. We asked participants to tap at Inter-stimulus Intervals (ISIs) of 250, 500, 1000, and 2000 ms. Using Linear Mixed Models (LMMs), we explored how ISI, Task Phase (synchronization, continuation), and Diagnosis interacted to determine the (i) the accuracy and (ii) the variability of tapping. Accuracy was defined as the relative error of a tap, and variability as the deviation of the participant’s tap from group predicted relative error. For accuracy, the PD group performed “ahead” of the beat whilst the CD group lagged “behind” the beat. We speculate that the “hastening” in the PD group relates to the clinical phenomenon of motor festination. For variability, CD patients showed greater variability than the healthy controls at ISIs below 1000 ms, whereas the variability of the PD patients was not markedly different to controls. These results give insight into the differential roles of the cerebellum and basal ganglia in motor timing.
Acknowledgements
Data collection was supported by grants from the Brain Research Trust, UCL Institute of Neurology, the National Science Foundation (BCS 1027120; PI Michael Kubovy) and a Medical Research Council Ph.D. studentship. A Collaborative Development Award from the British Council supported data analysis.
Keywords:
Motor Timing,
Cerebellum,
Basal Ganglia,
Parkinson's disease,
temporal processing,
synchronization,
continuation,
linear mixed model
Conference:
14th Rhythm Production and Perception Workshop Birmingham 11th - 13th September 2013, Birmingham, United Kingdom, 11 Sep - 13 Sep, 2013.
Presentation Type:
Oral Presentation
Topic:
Rhythm Production and Perception
Citation:
Jones
CR,
Claassen
D,
Yu
M,
Spies
J,
Malone
T,
Dirnberger
G,
Parkinson
M,
Giunti
P,
Kubovy
M and
Jahanshahi
M
(2013). The impact of cerebellar and basal ganglia dysfunction on the accuracy and variability of motor timing.
Conference Abstract:
14th Rhythm Production and Perception Workshop Birmingham 11th - 13th September 2013.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2013.214.00039
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Received:
05 Jul 2013;
Published Online:
24 Sep 2013.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Catherine R Jones, Cardiff University, School of Psychology, Cardiff, CF10 3AT, United Kingdom, JonesCR10@cardiff.ac.uk