Abstract
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease that results in widespread damage to the nervous
system. One consequence of this disease is the emergence of enhanced tremor. This
study was designed to (1) compare the tremor responses of persons with MS to that
of healthy adults and to (2) examine the impact of whole body position (i.e., seated/standing)
on tremor. Bilateral postural tremor was recorded using accelerometers attached to
each index finger. Results revealed some similarity of tremor between groups in regard
to the principal features (e.g., presence of peaks in similar frequency ranges). However,
significant differences were observed with tremor for the MS persons being of greater
amplitude, more regular (lower ApEn) and more strongly coupled across limbs compared
to the elderly. The effects of body position were consistent across all subjects,
with tremor increasing significantly from sitting-to-standing. However, the tremor
increase for the MS group was greater than the elderly. Overall, the tremor for MS
group was negatively affected by both this disease process and the nature of the task
being performed. This latter result indicates that tremor does not simply reflect
the feed-forward output of the neuromotor system but that it is influenced by the
task constraints.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: November 09, 2012
Accepted:
October 12,
2012
Received in revised form:
October 5,
2012
Received:
June 29,
2012
Identification
Copyright
© 2012 Elsevier B.V. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
