Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Deficits in adaptive upper limb control in response to trunk perturbations in Parkinson’s disease

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Experimental Brain Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The ability of patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) to compensate for unexpected perturbations remains relatively unexplored. To address this issue PD subjects were required to compensate at the arm for an unexpected mechanical perturbation of the trunk while performing a trunk-assisted reach. Twelve healthy and nine PD subjects (off medication) performed trunk-assisted reaching movements without vision or knowledge of results to a remembered target in the ipsilateral (T1) or contralateral (T2) workspace. On 60% of the trials trunk motion was unrestrained (free condition). On the remaining 40% of randomly selected trials trunk motion was arrested at movement onset (blocked condition). If subjects appropriately changed arm joint angles to compensate for the trunk arrest, there should be spatial and temporal invariance in the hand trajectories and in the endpoint errors across conditions. The control group successfully changed their arm configuration in a context-dependent manner which resulted in invariant hand trajectory profiles across the free and blocked conditions. More so, they initiated these changes rapidly after the trunk perturbation (group mean 70 ms). Some PD subjects were unable to maintain invariant hand paths and movement errors across conditions. Their hand velocity profiles were also more variable relative to those of the healthy subjects in the blocked-trunk trials but not in the free-trunk trials. Furthermore, the latency of compensatory changes in arm joint angles in movements toward T1 was longer in the PD group (group mean 153 ms). Finally, PD subjects’ arm and trunk were desynchronized at movement onset, confirming our previous findings and consistent with PD patients’ known problems in the sequential or parallel generation of different movement components. The findings that individual PD subjects were unsuccessful or delayed in producing context-dependent responses at the arm to unexpected perturbations of the trunk suggests that the basal ganglia are important nodes in the organization of adaptive behavior.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Adamovich SV, Archambault PS, Ghafouri M, Levin MF, Poizner H, Feldman AG (2001a) Hand trajectory invariance in reaching movements involving the trunk. Exp Brain Res 138:288–303

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Adamovich SV, Berkinblilt M, Hening W, Sage J, Poizner H (2001b) The interaction of visual and proprioceptive inputs in pointing to actual and remembered targets in Parkinson’s disease. Neuroscience 104:1027–1041

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Adkin AL, Frank JS, Carpenter MG, Peysar GW (2002) Fear of falling modifies anticipatory postural control. Exp Brain Res 143:160–170

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Beckley DJ, Bloem BR, Remler MP (1993) Impaired scaling of long latency postural reflexes in patients with Parkinson’s disease. Electroencephalo Clin Neurophysiol 89:22–28

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bloem BR, Beckley DJ, van Vugt JP, van Dijk JG, Remler MP, Langston JW, Roos RA (1995a) Long latency postural reflexes are under supraspinal dopaminergic control. Mov Disord 10:580–588

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bloem BR, Beckley DJ, Remler MP, Roos RA, van Dijk JG (1995b) Postural reflexes in Parkinson’s disease during ‘resist’ and ‘yield’ tasks. J Neurol Sci 129:109–119

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Brooks DJ (1997) Neuroimaging of movement disorders. In: Watts RL, Koller WC (eds) Movement disorders—neurologic principles and practice. McGraw-Hill, New York, pp 31–48

  • Brunholzl Claus (1994) Central motor conduction time to upper and lower limbs in cervical cord lesions. Arch Neurol 51:245–249

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Chong R, Horak F, Kaye J (1999a) Sensory organization for balance: specific deficits in Alzheimer’s but not in Parkinson’s disease. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 54:M122–128

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Chong R, Jones C, Horak F (1999b) Postural set for balance control is normal in Alzheimer’s but not in Parkinson’s disease. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 54:M129–235

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Escola L, Michelet T, Douillard G, Guehl D, Bioulac B, Burbaud P (2002) Disruption of the proprioceptive mapping in the medial wall of parkinsonian monkeys. Ann Neurol 52:581–587

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fahn S Elton RL (1987) The UPDRS development committee. Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale. In: Fahn S, Marsden CD, Calne D, Goldstein M (eds) Recent development in Parkinson’s disease, vol 2. Macmillan Healthcare Information, Florham Park, pp 153–163

  • Gracco VL Abbs JH (1985) Dynamic control of the perioral system during speech: kinematic analyses of autogenic and nonautogenic sensorimotor processes. J Neurophysiol 54:418–432

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hoehn M Yahr M (1967) Parkinsonism: onset, progression and mortality. Neurology 17:427–442

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Inzelberg R, Plotnik M, Flash T, Schechtman E, Shahar I, Korczyn AD (1996) Switching abilities in Parkinson’s disease. Adv Neurol 69:361–369

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Klockgether T, Borutta M, Rapp H, Spieker S, Dichgans J (1995) A defect of kinesthesia in Parkinson’s disease. Mov Disord 10:460–465

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • McIntyre J, Stratta F, Lacquaniti F (1997) Viewer-centered frame of reference for pointing to memorized targets in three-dimensional space. J Neurophysiol 78:1601–1618

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Oldfield RC (1971) The assessment and analysis of handedness: the Edinburgh inventory. Neuropsychologia 9:97–113

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Poizner H, Feldman AG, Levin MF, Berkinblit MB, Hening WA, Patel A, Adamovich SV (2000) The timing of arm-trunk coordination is deficient and vision-dependent in Parkinson’s patients during reaching movements. Exp Brain Res 133:279–292

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Scarpa M, Castiello U (1994) Perturbation of prehension movement in Parkinson’s disease. Mov Disord 9:415–425

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Seiss E, Praamstra P, Hesse CW, Rickards H (2003) Proprioceptive sensory function in Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease: evidence from proprioception-related EEG potentials. Exp Brain Res 148:308–319

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • TunikE, PoiznerH, LevinMF, Adamovich SV, FeldmanAG (2002) Compensatory arm-trunk coordination in Parkinson’s disease. Program no 666.10, abstract viewer/itinerary planner (CD-ROM). Society for Neuroscience, Washington

  • TunikE, PoiznerH, LevinMF, Adamovich SV, MessierJ, LamarreY, FeldmanAG (2003) Arm-trunk coordination in the absence of proprioception. Exp Brain Res 153:343–355

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Turner RS DeLong (2000) Corticostriatal activity in primary motor cortex of the macaque. J Neurosci 20:7096–7108

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yanagisawa N, Tamaru F, Shindo M, Warabi T (1993) Sensorimotor processing in Parkinson’s disease. In: Narabayashi H, Nagatsu N, Yanagisawa N, Mizuno Y (eds) Advances in neurology, vol 60. Raven, New York pp 366–360

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Philippe Archambault for technical and programming assistance and Ruth Dannenbaum-Katz for assistance with subject recruitment. Research supported by NIH grant (H.P.) number NS36449 and by a grant (A.G.F. and M.F.L.) from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) and from Les Fonds pour la Formation de Chercheurs et l’Aide a la Recherche (FCAR).

Author information

Author notes

  1. E. Tunik

    Present address: Department of Psychologial and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Moore Hall H6162, Hanover, NH 03755, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience, Rutgers University, 197 University Avenue, Newark, NJ 07102, USA

    E. Tunik, H. Poizner & S. V. Adamovich

  2. Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Rehabilitation, Rehabilitation Institute of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    M. F. Levin & A. G. Feldman

  3. School of Rehabilitation, Faculty of Medicine, University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    M. F. Levin

  4. Neurological Science Research Center, Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    A. G. Feldman

Authors
  1. E. Tunik
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. H. Poizner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. S. V. Adamovich
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. M. F. Levin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. A. G. Feldman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to H. Poizner.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Tunik, E., Poizner, H., Adamovich, S.V. et al. Deficits in adaptive upper limb control in response to trunk perturbations in Parkinson’s disease. Exp Brain Res 159, 23–32 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-004-1929-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-004-1929-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation