Failures of Dynamic Coordination in Disease States and Their Implications for Normal Brain Function

Dynamic coordination may become compromised due to several nonindependent factors, including a reduced ability to generate oscillations and synchrony, neurotransmitter and receptor excesses and reductions, anatomical and cellular changes that impair connectivity at local and global scales, and changes in gene expression that stem from primary genetic or environmental causes. This chapter presents a review of disorders in which dynamic coordination failures have been identi ed. It compares and contrasts the forms and severity levels of the impairments in each disorder and links these to biological causes, as far as is currently known. Questions are posed regarding the implications of data on coordination failures for increasing our understanding of normal coordination and the possibility of its enhancement.