Abstract
Our objective was to investigate how cooling of the arm and vision influence pointing
movements in healthy subjects and patients with cerebellar limb ataxia due to clinically
proven multiple sclerosis. An infrared video motion analysis system was used to record
the unrestricted, horizontal pointing movements toward a target under three different
conditions involving a moving, stationary, or imaginary target; a visual, or acoustic
trigger; and vision or memory guidance. All three tasks were performed before and
after cooling the arm in ice water. Patients had more hypermetric and slower pointing
movements than controls under all tested conditions. Patients also had significantly
larger three-dimensional finger sway paths during the postural phase and larger movement
angles of the wrist joint. Memory-guided movements were the most hypermetric recorded
in both groups. Cooling of the limb had no effect on amplitude or peak velocity of
the pointing movement in either group under all tested conditions, but significantly
reduced the three-dimensional finger sway path during the postural phase in patients
with limb ataxia. Cooling-induced reduction of the finger sway was largest in those
patients with the largest finger sway before cooling. In conclusion, the cooling-induced
reduction of the proprioceptive afferent inflow, most probably of group I spindle
afferents, reduces postural tremor of patients with cerebellar dysfunction.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
December 10,
1998
Received in revised form:
October 19,
1998
Received:
July 20,
1998
Identification
Copyright
© 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
