The Visuo-Motor Attention Test in Boys with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): Methylphenidate-Placebo Randomized Controlled Trial.

To assess the visuomotor attention ability in children with ADHD and controls and their response to placebo and Methylphenidate (MPH) treatment. 36 boys with ADHD and 36 age matched typical controls were administered the visuomotor attention test (VMAT) as a baseline and following a week of MPH(IR) or placebo administered to the study group, in a randomized crossover design. A significant difference between the study and control groups was found on several VMAT measures.

The choice of freely preferred cadence by trained nonprofessional cyclists may not be characterized by mechanical efficiency.

Background: Most cycling studies involve professional cyclists. Because training may affect riding style, it is of interest to determine the physiological basis for the personal choice of cycling cadence in nonprofessional cyclists.

Methods: Eleven nonprofessional (5.

Auditory and Visual Executive Functions in Children and Response to Methylphenidate: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

The aim of the study was to assess auditory and visually based executive functions (EFs) and the effect of methylphenidate (MPH) in children with ADHD. Thirty-six boys between the ages of 8.3 and 9.

Subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation does not improve visuo-motor impairment in Parkinson's disease.

Objective: To evaluate how bilateral subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS) affects visuo-motor coordination (VMC) in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD).

Background: VMC involves multi-sensory integration, motor planning, executive function and attention. VMC deficits are well-described in PD.

Visuo-motor coordination deficits and motor impairments in Parkinson's disease.

Background: Visuo-motor coordination (VMC) requires normal cognitive executive functionality, an ability to transform visual inputs into movement plans and motor-execution skills, all of which are known to be impaired in Parkinson's disease (PD). Not surprisingly, a VMC deficit in PD is well documented. Still, it is not known how this deficit relates to motor symptoms that are assessed routinely in the neurological clinic.

L-DOPA improves visuo-motor coordination in stable Parkinson's disease patients.

The visuo-motor coordination of 26 stable, treated, Parkinson's disease (PD) patients with average Hoehn and Yahr rating of 1.75+/-0.6, was assessed by use of several tracing and tracking tests before and 30min after ingestion of the mid-day levodopa (L-DOPA) dose.

Adaptation to cyclic stance perturbations in Parkinson's disease depends on postural demands.

The postural reactions of 10 moderate PD patients and 10 age matched controls were studied during stance on a sinusoidally back and forth moving platform during 5 blocks of 10, 1-min trials. Free stance was followed by weight bearing, lowering or raising the center of gravity (COG) by 10%. Next, a book was balanced on the head and finally, forward inclination was constrained.

99mTc-sestamibi kinetics predict myocardial viability in a perfused rat heart model.

Introduction: (99m)Tc-sestamibi has been proposed as a viability imaging agent. The purposes of this study were: (1) to determine the relationship between myocardial viability and (99m)Tc-sestamibi kinetics using perfused rat heart models across a full spectrum of viability, (2) to do so under conditions where myocardial flow was controlled and held constant, and (3) to do so using multiple quantitative methods to assess myocardial viability.

Methods: Twenty-three isolated rat hearts were perfused retrogradely with a modified Krebs-Henseleit (KH) solution.

Visuomotor tracking related to attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Deficient visuomotor tracking in children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been described, but the specific influence of attention on this deficit has not yet been elucidated. The present study compares visuomotor tracking under different conditions of attentional loading in children with ADHD with that of age-matched controls. A computerized visuomotor attentional tracking test that incorporated several levels of distraction was administered to 13 typical children.

Effect of ropinirole on visuo-motor test in newly diagnosed Parkinson's disease patients.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the sensitivity of the visuo-motor test (VMT) compared with the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) in newly diagnosed Parkinson's disease (PD) patients.

Methods: VMT and UPDRS were carried out in 20 patients before treatment onset, 2 weeks after treatment with ropinirole 1.5 mg/day and 2 weeks following increasing the dose of ropinirole to 3.

(99m)Tc-glucarate imaging for the early detection of infarct in partially reperfused canine myocardium.

Purpose: (99m)Tc-glucarate is an imaging agent developed for the detection of acutely infarcted myocardium. The purposes of the current study were to (1) determine whether (99m)Tc-glucarate can detect acute infarct in the setting of only partial minimal reperfusion, (2) study the persistence and time course of scan positivity following coronary occlusion and intravenous tracer injection, (3) assess the ability of (99m)Tc-glucarate to determine infarct size, and (4) compare these data with previous results obtained using a 100% reperfusion model.

Methods: Six dogs underwent left circumflex (LCx) coronary occlusion for 90 min, followed by 10% epicardial blood flow reperfusion.

Recruitment of attentional resources during visuomotor tracking: effects of Parkinson's disease and age.

The ability to recruit attentional resources during distracted tracking was studied in 19 moderate PD patients, 21 healthy elderly subjects and 20 young controls. All subjects tracked a 1-cm circle that moved across a computer screen along a sinusoidal path (training) and along a circular path (testing). Tracking consisted of maintaining a dot cursor within the target by moving an unseen manipulandum across a digitizing tablet.

Dopamine-transporter imaging and visuo-motor testing in essential tremor, practical possibilities for detection of early stage Parkinson's disease.

Background: Essential tremor (ET) is often an alternative diagnosis to Parkinson's disease (PD) and some ET patients may later develop PD. Unlike the former, PD patients have deficient visuo-motor coordination (VMC). Recently, we have attempted to exploit this difference in order to detect PD in ambiguous neurological cases.

Early detection of infarct in reperfused canine myocardium using 99mTc-glucarate.

Unlabelled: 99mTc-Glucarate is an infarct-avid imaging agent with the potential for very early detection of myocardial infarction. The purposes of this study using a canine model were to determine (a) the time course of (99m)Tc-glucarate uptake and clearance from necrotic and normal myocardium; (b) the (99m)Tc-glucarate necrotic-to-normal activity ratio over time; (c) the time course of detectable scan positivity after intravenous administration of the tracer; and (d) the relationship of infarct size determined by triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) staining versus (99m)Tc-glucarate imaging ex vivo.

Methods: A 90-min left circumflex coronary artery (LCx) occlusion was followed by 270 min of reperfusion at 100% baseline flow in 6 open-chest, anesthetized dogs.

Antipsychotic-induced rabbit syndrome: epidemiology, management and pathophysiology.

Rabbit syndrome is an antipsychotic-induced rhythmic motion of the mouth/lips, resembling the chewing movements of a rabbit. The movement consists of a vertical-only motion, at about 5Hz, with no involvement of the tongue. Usually, the involuntary movements associated with rabbit syndrome appear after a long period (in most cases months or years) of antipsychotic treatment; however, a few patients with the syndrome have had treatment histories with no antipsychotic involvement.

Response selection and execution in patients with Parkinson's disease.

Different studies report diverse, sometimes conflicting findings, regarding the ability of Parkinson's disease (PD) patients to benefit from advanced cuing in choice reaction time (RT). Thus, conclusions about the changed state of underlying processes such as set formation, motor programming and motor initiation are not certain. In the present study, visual choice RT testing that utilized brief (100 ms) color signals (red/blue), was followed by auditory choice reaction time (CRT) testing with brief (100 ms) low/high pitch sound stimuli.

Visuo-motor coordination is normal in patients with major depression.

Depression and Parkinson's disease (PD) are strongly associated with each other. Similarly, deficient visuo-motor coordination (VMC) accompanies PD from its earliest clinical stages. This double association suggests that a VMC dysfunction would be found in patients with major depression.

Myocardial kinetics of Tc-99m glucarate in low flow, hypoxia, and aglycemia.

Background: Technetium-99m glucarate is a myocardial infarct-avid imaging agent. Recent conflicting and inconclusive reports have suggested that the agent may be taken up by ischemic but viable myocardium. The purposes of this study were (1) to determine conclusively whether there is Tc-99m glucarate uptake in ischemic viable myocardium and (2) to investigate the potential mechanisms for such uptake by studying components of ischemia, namely, low flow, hypoxia, and aglycemia.

Impaired visuomotor function in schizophrenic patients compared with control subjects.

Visuomotor function was studied in 36 schizophrenic patients treated with atypical antipsychotics and in 22 control subjects. Patients showed significant disturbances in ability to control movement direction when tracing objects on screen and in keeping pace with a moving target in tracking tests. The impairments were not related to medication dose or to extrapyramidal side effects.

Accuracy of reproducing hand position when using active compared with passive movement.

Background And Purpose: Evaluating proprioception is relevant to physical rehabilitation because of its significance in motor control. One method of proprioceptive testing involves having subjects either imitate or point at a joint position or movement which was presented via a passive movement. However, as the muscle spindles are subject to central fusimotor control, the proprioceptive system may be better-tuned to movements created by active muscular contraction than to passive movements.

Improvement in cognition associated with novel antipsychotic drugs: a direct drug effect or reduction of EPS?

Background: Administration of novel, versus classic, antipsychotic agents to patients suffering from psychosis is associated both with moderately better scores on cognitive tests, and with fewer extrapyramidal symptoms (EPS). Because improved motor functioning may enable better performance on some components of cognitive test batteries, and because the advantages of the novel antipsychotics on cognitive performance are not very large, it is sometimes difficult to discern if improvement in a given cognitive task is due to a direct effect of the novel antipsychotic drug, or is secondary to the novel drug's decreased propensity to induce EPS. In an attempt to distinguish between these two possibilities, the present study examined the ability of patients suffering from schizophrenia receiving classic, versus novel antipsychotics, to perform a computerized visuo-motor test (VMT).

The role of feedback in manual tracking of visual targets.

The role of visual feedback in manual tracking was investigated in 24 subjects who tracked 5-, 10-, and 40-mm/diameter targets, moving on a screen at 18 to 25 mm/sec., along various paths, by moving an unseen handle over a digitizing tablet. A cursor indicating instantaneous handle position was visible at all times on half the trials and hidden within a circle coaxial with the target but double its diameter in the other half.

Visuomotor performance in patients with essential tremor.

Essential tremor (ET) is the most prevalent extrapyramidal disorder, yet its diagnosis is still controversial. This article introduces new findings that pertain to this diagnostic problem. Twenty-three patients with ET were studied.

The effect of deprenyl treatment on directional and velocity control of arm movement in patients with early stages of Parkinson's disease.

Visual motor control (VMC) of arm movements is disturbed in patients with Parkinson's disease. The effect of antiparkinsonian medications on VMC is unknown. To assess the effect of deprenyl, a monoamine oxidase type B inhibitor, on VMC in the early stages of parkinsonism.

Visual and kinesthetic control of goal-directed movements to visually and kinesthetically presented targets.

The study investigated the contribution of kinesthetic and visual input to the performance of reaching movements and identified rules governing the transformation of information between these two sensory modalities. The study examined the accuracy by which 39 subjects reproduced locations of five targets in a horizontal plane. Mode of target presentation and feedback during reproduction of a target's location was either visual, kinesthetic or a combination of both modalities.