Topic: manual dexterity

Traditionally, it has been considered that the correct execution of manual dexterity movements fully depends on the brain, mainly on the motor cortex, and the spinal cord would “simply” be the substrate for the information to be transmitted to the muscle. However, stereotypic features of these movements suggest that some level of control may be exerted from the spinal cord (SC). In this project, we aimed to unveil the presence and location of this hypotetic spinal neuronal network. We inflicted excitotoxic injuries to rats at different cervical SC levels using kainic acid, for exclusively affe

The neurophysiological mechanisms of impaired manual dexterity in Parkinson’s disease (PD) have not been elucidated. Hence, our study aimed to compare healthy subjects (HCO) and mildly affected PD patients and to evaluate associations between parameters: (i) striatal dopaminergic function; (ii) activity of the motor cortex; (iii) brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and (iv) manual dexterity.The study involved fifteen HCO subjects and thirty patients with mild PD. All subjects were assessed by: (i) Positron Emission Computed Tomography with estimation of striatal [18F]Fluorodopa uptake rat