Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “HANDWRITING”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 1,441 records · Page 80Linked to original sources
PubMed1993

Diurnal blood pressure variability and physical activity measured electronically and by diary.

In order for 24 h ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) to be useful in clinical decision making, it is necessary to quantify ambient physical activity and to develop appropriate norms of ambulatory pressure for different levels of activity. The present study has compared the predictive value of physical activity determined by an electronic activity monitor or a written diary, for concomitantly recorded blood pressure during ABPM in healthy normotensive subjects. Each subject wore four activity monitors, on the right and left wrists, on the left ankle and at the waist, respectively. Linear regression analysis was performed for each subject to determine the correlation between ABPM data (systolic and diastolic blood pressure and heart rate) and activity data (obtained from diaries and the four monitors). Significant differences in the degree of correlation were found for both the location of the activity monitor and the time (1/2, 2, 5, 10, 15, and 30 min preceding blood pressure measurement) over which activity was averaged (P < .05 by two-way analysis of variance). The best correlation was obtained with the activity monitor worn on the dominant wrist, and when activity was averaged over 2 to 10 min preceding blood pressure determination, accounting for 18 to 69% (mean 36 +/- 5%) of systolic blood pressure variation. Diaries performed similarly in these well-motivated subjects. It is concluded that because of the significant interaction between activity and blood pressure, ABPM data should be interpreted only in the light of concomitant activity data.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adult↗
PubMed1981

Lexical or orthographic agraphia.

A case of agraphia was studied in the framework of the information-processing approach and in relation to comparable studies on alexia. Three dissociations are of interest in this patient's picture: (a) in language production: impairment of writing without impairment of speech; (b) in writing: impairment of spelling without impairment of phoneme-grapheme conversion; (c) in visible language: impairment of writing without equivalent impairment of reading. The implications of these dissociations for any model of linguistic processes are discussed.

Aged↗
PubMed1982

Writers' cramp-a focal dystonia.

We have examined 29 subjects with writers' cramp (and 4 with typists' and one with pianists' cramp) and have noted two major groupings, simple and dystonic. We have observed spread from one to the other. We have seen repeatedly, in patients with isolated simple writers' cramp certain subtle physical signs which are found also in other basal ganglia diseases. We have noted also the frequent association of other features of segmental and generalized dystonia in patients with dystonic writers' cramp. We have demonstrated that patients with isolated writers' cramp have no higher an incidence of psychiatric disturbance, as judged by formal Present State Examination, than the normal population. We conclude that isolated writers' cramp is a physical illness rather than a psychological disturbance, and that it is a focal dystonia.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

The location of speech and writing functions in the frontal language area. Results of extraoperative cortical stimulation.

In three patients stimulation of the frontal speech area resulted in one or more of the following symptoms: speech arrest, writing arrest, or impaired rapid alternating movements of the tongue, fingers or toes. Speech arrest could be altered at individual points either with or without impairment of rapid movements or writing, but writing was not impaired without concomitant difficulties with either speech or rapid finger movements. Our data suggest that the frontal speech area may function to integrate complex motor functions, some speech related and others not. We also confirm previous conclusions that Exner's writing centre is not separate from Broca's area and that the writing defect in Broca's aphasia can occur without involvement of the motor strip.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Different interhemispheric transfer of kanji and kana writing evidenced by a case with left unilateral agraphia without apraxia.

Recent neuropsychological studies have revealed that the processing of kanji (the Japanese morphograms) and kana (the Japanese syllabograms) involves different intrahemispheric mechanisms. We describe a patient showing left unilateral agraphia without apraxia for kanji, but not for kana, who was diagnosed by magnetic resonance imaging as having a lesion of the posterior body of the corpus callosum. This patient indicates that different neural pathways are used for kanji and kana not only intrahemispherically, but also interhemispherically.

Aged↗
PubMed1991

Phonolexical agraphia. Superimposition of acquired lexical agraphia on developmental phonological dysgraphia.

Study of neuropsychological sequelae of a focal acquired brain lesion may bring out and help delineate the features of a compensated developmental language disorder and its anatomical substrate. A left-handed man with a history of phonological developmental dyslexia and dysgraphia learned in early adulthood to read and write using a lexical system. Following a small posterior right parietal infarct when aged 56 yrs he developed a severe agraphia displaying features of phonological dysgraphia with impaired segmentation and features of lexical agraphia. Writing was severely impaired for all classes of word and nonword stimuli but his errors did not resemble those attributable to a deficit in the system responsible for the short-term storage of the graphemic representation of a word (graphemic output buffer). These observations imply that an acquired lexical agraphia has been superimposed on his developmental phonological dysgraphia, resulting in a combined or 'phonolexical' agraphia.

Agraphia↗
PubMed1996

Impaired sensory-motor integration during grasping in writer's cramp.

Six subjects with writer's cramp and six healthy control subjects were examined while lifting a small instrumented object with variable weight and friction using the precision grip. The isometric grip and load forces were sampled at 400 Hz and stored in a flexible laboratory computer system for later analysis. Quantitative measurement of vibration and temperature sensibility showed normal sensory perception in the writer's cramp subjects. They exhibited an impaired programming of the grip-lift force co-ordination, while the ability to generate unimodal force-rate trajectories and to characterize the pattern of the force output according to memory representations of weight and friction of the object were intact. The capacity to terminate quickly the programmed grip force in lifts erroneously programmed too high was impaired. Writer's cramp subjects also employed excessive grip force during the static phase of the lift, and some patients had a short grip force latency after sudden unpredicted load increases, indicating a disinhibited spinal reflex response. The results indicate an impaired capacity in writer's cramp subjects to integrate sensory information in the motor programming and force regulation during precision grip tasks, despite a normal sensibility.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Idiopathic focal dystonia: a disorder of muscle spindle afferent processing?

As muscle spindles are involved in the sensation of position and movement of the body, we tested their involvement in the pathophysiology of idiopathic focal dystonia. Twenty patients with torticollis, nine with writer's cramp, two with blepharospasm and 16 healthy control subjects participated. In the first task, the blindfolded subject matched the position of the passively moved forearm with the opposite forearm when the elbow joint was slowly flexed. In a second matching task, passive movement was replaced by stimulation of one biceps tendon with a 50-Hz vibratory stimulus (a selective stimulus for muscle spindle Ia afferents). In normal individuals, this stimulus produces flexion of the vibrated arm around the elbow joint. Movement in both arms was recorded electronically. In experiments without vibratory stimuli, dystonic subjects showed normal movement of the tracking arm during attempts to match the position of the passively moved arm and no difference between the arms in the initial and final steady state positions. In experiments using vibratory stimuli, vibration of biceps tendons in normal subjects elicited flexion of the stimulated arm at the elbow and a matching movement of the opposite arm. In patients with dystonia, there was a similar flexion response to the vibratory stimulus in the stimulated arm but movement of the tracking arm was reduced. Taken together, these experiments suggest that there is abnormal perception of motion, but not position, in dystonic subjects. Dystonic subjects showed bilateral abnormalities of perception of the tonic vibration reflex which were remote from the clinically affected site. These findings are discussed in relationship to the role of muscle spindle Ia afferents in focal dystonia.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Botulinum toxin does not reverse the cortical dysfunction associated with writer's cramp. A PET study.

Previous H2(15)O PET activation studies on patients with idiopathic torsion dystonia (ITD) have shown overactive striatum and frontal accessory areas and underactivity of the primary motor cortex and caudal supplementary motor area (SMA) during volitional movement. We have now examined activation of the motor system in healthy control subjects and patients with writer's cramp while they write a stereotyped word repetitively at a paced rate before and after treatment with botulinum toxin to see if these patients showed a similar pattern of abnormalities and whether they were reversible. As in ITD, our patients with writer's cramp showed impaired activation of the contralateral primary motor cortex, but enhanced activation of frontal association cortex. Botulinum-toxin treatment improved writing and increased activation in parietal cortex and caudal SMA. This may represent either a change in movement strategy or associated cortical reorganization secondary to deefferentation of alpha motor neurons. However, botulinum toxin failed to improve the impaired activation of the primary motor cortex. We conclude that, while botulinum toxin is clinically effective in writer's cramp, it does not reverse the associated dysfunction of primary motor and premotor cortex.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Abnormal cortical processing of voluntary muscle relaxation in patients with focal hand dystonia studied by movement-related potentials.

In order to clarify the abnormality in cortical motor preparation for voluntary muscle relaxation of the hand in patients with focal hand dystonia, Bereitschaftspotentials (BPs) preceding voluntary muscle contraction and relaxation were recorded in eight patients (three with simple writer's cramp and five with dystonic writer's cramp), and were compared with those from 10 normal subjects. Voluntary muscle relaxation: after keeping the right wrist in an extended position for > 5 s, the subject let the hand drop by voluntarily terminating muscle contraction of the wrist extensor without any associated muscle contraction. Voluntary muscle contraction: the right wrist was flexed by voluntarily contracting the wrist flexor muscle. Scalp EEGs were recorded from 11 electrodes placed over the frontal, central and parietal areas. In the control group, the BP measured at the movement onset was maximal at the left central area (C1), and distributed predominantly over the left hemisphere equally in both the contraction and relaxation tasks. In the focal hand dystonia group, BP was maximal at C1 in the contraction task, whereas, in the relaxation task, it was maximal at the midline central area (Cz) and symmetrically distributed. At the left central area, the BP amplitude in the focal hand dystonia group was diminished significantly in the relaxation task compared with the contraction task (P < 0.05). The present results demonstrate for the first time that the cortical preparatory process for voluntary muscle relaxation, or motor inhibition, is abnormal in focal hand dystonia.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

Essential role of the right superior parietal cortex in Japanese kana mirror reading: An fMRI study.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to investigate the neural substrates responsible for Japanese kana mirror reading. Japanese kana words, arranged vertically from top to bottom, were used in the mirror reading task in 10 normal right-handed Japanese adults. Since both mirror-reversed and normally oriented kana items are read in the same (top to bottom) direction, it was possible to minimize the oculomotor effects which often occur in the process of mirror reading of alphabetical language. By using the SPM96 random effect analysis method, a significant increase in the blood oxygen level-dependent signal during mirror reading relative to normal reading was detected in multiple brain regions, including the bilateral superior occipital gyri, bilateral middle occipital gyri corresponding to Brodmann area (BA) 18/19, bilateral lingual gyri (BA 19), left inferior occipital gyrus (BA 18), left inferior temporal cortex (BA 37), bilateral fusiform gyri (BA 19), right superior parietal cortex (SPC) (BA 7), left inferior frontal gyrus (BA 44/45) and an inferior part of the left BA 6. In addition to these cortical regions, the right caudate nucleus and right cerebellum were also activated. The activation found in the right SPC and the left inferior temporal region is consistent with the hypothesis that mirror reading involves both the dorsal visuospatial and ventral object recognition pathways. In particular, a significant correlation was found between the fMRI signal change in the right SPC and the behavioural performance (error index) in the task. This may reflect increased demand on the right SPC for the spatial transformation which is required for the accurate recognition of mirror-reversed kana items. This relationship between the haemodynamic response in a specific brain area and the behavioural data provides new evidence for the essential role of the right SPC in Japanese kana mirror reading.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

Participation of the left posterior inferior temporal cortex in writing and mental recall of kanji orthography: A functional MRI study.

To examine the neuropsychological mechanisms involved in writing kanji (morphograms), we used functional MRI (fMRI) in 10 normal volunteers, all right-handed, native Japanese speakers. The experimental paradigms consisted of kana-to-kanji transcription, mental recall of kanji orthography and oral reading and semantic judgement of kana words. The first two tasks require manual and mental transcription of visually presented kana words into kanji, respectively, whereas the last two tasks involve language processing of the same set of stimulus words without recall of kanji. The transcription and mental recall tasks yielded lateralized activation of the left posterior inferior temporal cortex (PITC). By contrast, neither oral reading nor semantic judgement produced similar activation of the area. These results, in good accordance with lesion data, provide converging evidence that the left PITC plays an important role in writing kanji through retrieval of their visual graphic images, and suggest language-specific cerebral organization of writing. The set of fMRI experiments also provides new neuroimaging data on the cortical localization of basic language functions in people using a non-alphabetical language.

Adult↗