Session Information
Date: Thursday, June 23, 2016
Session Title: Dystonia
Session Time: 12:00pm-1:30pm
Location: Exhibit Hall located in Hall B, Level 2
Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the structural organization of the brain connectome in patients with psychogenic dystonia (pDYT).
Background: pDYT is a controversial diagnosis. The neurobiological basis of psychogenic movement disorders remains poorly understood.
Methods: The study involved 31 pDYT patients and 36 age- and sex-matched healthy controls (HC). All subjects underwent 3D-T1 weighted and DT MRI. The structural connectome was reconstructed based on brain parcellation and whole brain DT MRI tractography. The affected structural connections in patients relative to HC were investigated using Network-Based Statistic (p<0.01, 10.000 permutations).
Results: Compared to HC, pDYT patients showed a large brainstem/basal ganglia/frontal network (or principal connected component) with decreased fractional anisotropy (FA) and increased mean diffusivity including the brainstem, left thalamus, putamen, pallidum, pre- and post-central gyri, right caudate, and anterior cingulate and middle/superior frontal cortex bilaterally. Smaller secondary networks with reduced FA were found in the right hemisphere connecting the right pre- and post-central gyri to the thalamus and middle frontal areas. In pDYT patients, affected connections between the right thalamus and putamen and the right thalamus and precentral gyrus correlated with the total phenomenology subscore of the Psychogenic Movement Disorder (PMD) scale.
Conclusions: This study points toward a structural disconnection of the brainstem/basal ganglia/frontal brain networks in patients with pDYT. Altered structural connections between basal ganglia and primary sensorimotor cortex are associated with the severity and duration of the disease. Future longitudinal studies are warranted to clarify whether these abnormalities reflect a primary disease process in these networks or are secondary effects of the disorder.
XLVI Congress of Italian Neurological Society.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
S. Basaia, F. Agosta, A. Tomic, E. Sarasso, M. Svetel, S. Galantucci, V.S. Kostic, M. Filippi. Structural organization of the brain connectome in patients with psychogenic dystonia [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2016; 31 (suppl 2). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/structural-organization-of-the-brain-connectome-in-patients-with-psychogenic-dystonia/. Accessed July 11, 2025.« Back to 2016 International Congress
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/structural-organization-of-the-brain-connectome-in-patients-with-psychogenic-dystonia/