Impaired modulation of intracortical inhibition in focal hand dystonia

Previous studies have shown that intracortical inhibition (ICI) plays an important role in shaping the output from primary motor cortex, and that ICI may be impaired in people with Focal Hand Dystonia (FHD). This study explored the muscle-specificity and temporal modulation of ICI during the performance of a phasic index finger flexion task. Eight control subjects and seven with FHD were asked to rest their dominant hand upon a computer mouse, and depress the mouse button using their index finger in time with a 1 Hz auditory metronome, while keeping the rest of their hand as relaxed as possible. Responses to single and paired-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation were recorded from the first dorsal interosseous (FDI) and abductor pollicis brevis (APB) muscles while subjects were at rest and during 'on' and 'off' phases of the task. For control subjects during the movement (i) FDI motor evoked potential (MEP) amplitude and pretrigger EMG increased, and ICI decreased, as expected, and (ii) there was no significant facilitation of MEP amplitude or pretrigger EMG for APB, which was associated with a significant increase in ICI during the movement. This may have helped prevent the unwanted activation of this muscle. While FHD subjects demonstrated the same patterns of modulation of both MEP amplitude and pretrigger EMG for both FDI and APB, their levels of ICI were not modulated by task performance. This was despite no difference between subject groups in the level of ICI observed at rest. These findings suggest that FHD is associated with impaired modulation of ICI during performance of a precise manual task, which may contribute to a lack of specificity in the output from M1 and the development of dystonic symptoms.