Publications by authors named "Eavan M Mc Govern"

Psychiatric symptoms are common in neurodevelopmental movement disorders, including some types of dystonia. However, research has mainly focused on motor manifestations and underlying circuits. Myoclonus-dystonia is a rare and homogeneous neurodevelopmental condition serving as an illustrative paradigm of childhood-onset dystonias, associated with psychiatric symptoms.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study explores myoclonus dystonia caused by a variant in the SGCE gene, focusing on the microarchitectural brain abnormalities linked to this rare condition.
  • Researchers compared the brain structures of 18 MYC/DYT-SGCE patients with 24 healthy volunteers using advanced imaging techniques to assess neurite organization.
  • Results indicate that patients exhibited changes in cerebellar structure, with specific alterations correlating to the severity of dystonia, while no links were found between myoclonus severity and the microarchitectural measurements.
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  • This study investigates the non-motor aspects of myoclonus dystonia, focusing on the sense of agency, which is how individuals perceive control over their actions, and how disruptions in this sense can affect movement disorders.* -
  • The research compared 19 patients with myoclonus dystonia (stemming from a specific genetic variant) to 24 healthy participants, revealing that the patients had a significant impairment in their explicit sense of agency, while their implicit sense remained unaffected.* -
  • Neuroimaging analyses showed structural and functional abnormalities in the cerebellum and its connectivity with the pre-supplementary motor area, suggesting these brain regions play a crucial role in the altered sense of agency in patients with my
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Background: Movement disorders are frequent in patients with inborn errors of metabolism (IEMs) but poorly recognized, particularly by nonmovement disorder specialists. We propose an easy-to-use clinical screening tool to help recognize movement disorders.

Objective: The aim is to develop a user-friendly rapid screening tool for nonmovement disorder specialists to detect moderate and severe movement disorders in patients aged ≥4 years with IEMs.

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Article Synopsis
  • Myoclonus-dystonia (MD) is a neurological syndrome involving muscle jerks and dystonia, often linked to mental health issues, caused by dysfunction in specific brain pathways.
  • A study using the Stop Signal Task examined the reactive and proactive inhibitory control in MD patients, comparing those with and without deep brain stimulation treatment to healthy controls.
  • Findings revealed that unoperated MD patients had impaired proactive inhibition, while those with deep brain stimulation had issues with reactive inhibition, indicating different effects on inhibitory control depending on the treatment status.
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Background: Abnormal sensory processing, including temporal discrimination threshold, has been described in various dystonic syndromes.

Objective: To investigate visual sensory processing in DYT-SGCE and identify its structural correlates.

Methods: DYT-SGCE patients without DBS (DYT-SGCE-non-DBS) and with DBS (DYT-SGCE-DBS) were compared to healthy volunteers in three tasks: a temporal discrimination threshold, a movement orientation discrimination, and movement speed discrimination.

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An abnormal temporal discrimination threshold in cervical dystonia (CD) is considered to be a mediational endophenotype; in unaffected relatives it is hypothesized to indicate non-manifesting gene carriage. The pathogenesis underlying this condition remains unknown. Investigation of the neural networks involved in disordered temporal discrimination may highlight its pathomechanisms.

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Background: "JUMP" is a multidisciplinary program based at the Pitie-Salpêtrière Hospital Paris that transitions young adults with chronic neurological conditions from paediatric to adult healthcare. Transitional care programs have been shown to improve medical, educational and psychosocial outcomes for adolescent patients.

Methods: Demographic details and health-related variables of all patients referred to the JUMP program were collected.

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Purpose Of Review: This review will discuss the expanding clinical spectrum of paroxysmal movement disorders and therapeutic options in light of emerging genotypic heterogeneity in these conditions.

Recent Findings: Paroxysmal movement disorders comprise a heterogeneous group of rare neurological conditions characterized by intermittent episodes of abnormal movement associated with various triggers. As the clinical and genotypic spectrum of these disorders evolves, so also has the range of therapeutic options.

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The temporal discrimination threshold (TDT) is the shortest time interval at which an observer can discriminate two sequential stimuli as being asynchronous (typically 30-50 ms). It has been shown to be abnormal (prolonged) in neurological disorders, including cervical dystonia, a phenotype of adult onset idiopathic isolated focal dystonia. The TDT is a quantitative measure of the ability to perceive rapid changes in the environment and is considered indicative of the behavior of the visual neurons in the superior colliculus, a key node in covert attentional orienting.

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Background: Primary orthostatic tremor (POT) is a movement disorder characterized by unsteadiness upon standing still due to a tremor affecting the legs. It is a gradually progressive condition with limited treatment options. Impairments in health-related quality of life (HQoL) seem to far exceed the physical disability associated with the condition.

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Temporal discrimination is the ability to determine that two sequential sensory stimuli are separated in time. For any individual, the temporal discrimination threshold (TDT) is the minimum interval at which paired sequential stimuli are perceived as being asynchronous; this can be assessed, with high test-retest and inter-rater reliability, using a simple psychophysical test. Temporal discrimination is disordered in a number of basal ganglia diseases including adult-onset dystonia, of which the two most common phenotypes are cervical dystonia and blepharospasm.

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Cervical dystonia is a common neurological movement disorder characterised by muscle contractions causing abnormal movements and postures affecting the head and neck. The neural networks underpinning this condition are incompletely understood. While animal models suggest a role for the superior colliculus in its pathophysiology, this link has yet to be established in humans.

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The temporal discrimination threshold (TDT) is the shortest time interval at which an individual detects two stimuli to be asynchronous (normal  =  30-50 ms). It has been shown to be abnormal in patients with disorders affecting the basal ganglia including adult onset idiopathic focal dystonia (AOIFD). Up to 97% of patients have an abnormal TDT with age- and sex-related penetrance in unaffected relatives, demonstrating an autosomal dominant inheritance pattern.

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The temporal discrimination threshold (TDT) is a proposed pre-clinical biomarker (endophenotype) for adult onset isolated focal dystonia (AOIFD). Age- and sex-related effects on temporal discrimination demonstrate that women, before the age of 40 years, have faster temporal discrimination than men but their TDTs worsen with age at almost three times the rate of men. Thus after 40 years the TDT in women is progressively worse than in men.

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