Objective: The aim of our study was to examine motor imagery (MI) ability in patients with functional dystonia (FD) and organic dystonia (OD).

Background: MI involves recreating a movement mentally without physically performing the movement itself, with a positive impact on motor performance, motor learning and neural plasticity. Since dystonia is generally considered as a sensorimotor disorder, with FD being far from clear etiology, MI ability in FD might be altered.

Method: Our study involved 46 patients, 22 with FD and 24 with OD. The assessment consisted of specific questionnaire and standardized motor, cognitive and psychiatric scales. The KVIQ-20 was used to test MI in each patient.

Results: Patients with FD scored lower on both visual and kinaesthetic scales in all sections of the KVIQ-20 exam compared to patients with OD. Patients with FD also exhibited differences in scores in the visual domain depending on the dystonia distribution, with patients having both axial and extremity distribution scoring the lowest. The internal perspective when imagining movements was preferred in both patients with FD and OD.

Conclusion: FD patients consistently showed global dysfunction of visual and kinaesthetic MI abilities, as well as in different movement types and dystonia distribution. Techniques for MI improvements might have a potential role in dystonia rehabilitation.

« Back to 2023 International Congress

MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/motor-imagery-ability-in-patients-with-functional-dystonia/