INTRODUCTION Testosterone (T) induces motor dysfunction in transgenic (Tg) mice that overexpress wild-type androgen receptor (AR) in skeletal muscles. Because many genes implicated in motor neuron disease are expressed in skeletal muscle, mutant proteins may act in muscle to cause dysfunction in motor neuron disease. METHODS We examined contractile properties of the extensor digitorum longus ...

Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) is a relatively new term for a clinical entity first described during the American Civil War almost a century and a half ago. Historically, the diagnostic criteria have focused on the sensory (pain, allodynia, hyperalgesia) and autonomic (sudomotor and vasomotor disturbances) features associated with this syndrome (IASP terminology Refs. [10,14]. However, r...

Musicians' dystonia is a task-specific and painless loss of motor control in a previously well-executed task. It is increasingly recognized in the medical and musical community. Recent advances in neuroimaging, transcranial magnetic stimulation and novel techniques in electroencephalography have shed light on its underlying pathophysiology. To date, a deranged cortical plasticity leading to abn...

34 Courtney Oare is a 2017 graduate of Purdue University who majored in Radiological Health Sciences with a concentration in Medical Physics. In the School of Health Sciences Honors Program, she partook in research for three years with an interest in imaging and evaluation of disease. Outside of coursework and research, she served as an Ambassador for the College of Health and Human Sciences, w...

Paroxysmal kinesigenic choreoathetosis (PKC) is characterized by abnormal involuntary movements precipitated by sudden movement. As a result, a possible impairment of cerebral organization of voluntary motor activity is hypothesized in PKC. We examined a 14-year-old boy affected by a sporadic form of PKC, adopting a multimodal psychophysiological approach, including P300, contingent negative va...

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disorder affecting motor neurons in the brain, brainstem and spinal cord, which is characterized by motor dysfunction, muscle dystrophy and progressive paralysis. Both inherited and sporadic forms of ALS share common pathological features, however, the initial trigger of neurodegeneration remains unknown. Motor neurons are uniquely targ...

Transgenic models of neurodegenerative disease have proved uniquely powerful for delineating pathways of neuronal dysfunction and cell death. We have developed a transgenic model of the polyglutamine disease spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA), an adult-onset, slowly progressive motor neuron disease caused by polyglutamine expansion in the androgen receptor (AR). Mice bearing a human AR w...

Parkinson's disease (PD) is characterized as a chronic and progressive neurodegenerative disorder that results in a variety of debilitating symptoms, including bradykinesia, resting tremor, rigidity, and postural instability. Research spanning several decades has emphasized basal ganglia dysfunction, predominantly resulting from dopaminergic (DA) cell loss, as the primarily cause of the aforeme...

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a long-term neurodegenerative disease characterized by the presence of dopaminergic neuronal loss and dysfunction in the substantia nigra. Motor disturbance is the symptom most typically reported, including bradykinesia plus either limb rigidity, resting tremor, or postural instability [1-3]. Importantly, it has been reported that at the point when the patient meets ...

Cardinal motor features of Parkinson's disease (PD) include bradykinesia, rest tremor, and rigidity, which appear in the early stages of the disease and largely depend on dopaminergic nigrostriatal denervation. Intermediate and advanced PD stages are characterized by motor fluctuations and dyskinesia, which depend on complex mechanisms secondary to severe nigrostriatal loss and to the problems ...