Study Status: Recruiting
Recruit Status: Recruiting
Study Type: Observational
Official Title: The Pathophysiology of Functional Neurological Disorders
Brief Summary:
Functional disorders, also called psychogenic or psychosomatic are very common, disabling and their costs to society are immense.
Functional movement disorders are abnormal, involuntary movements, that are illogical in terms of classic neurology. Intriguingly, they typically manifest when patients pay attention to them and disappear with distraction.
The investigators aim to further the understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying functional neurological disorders in order to improve treatment. In particular they aim to understand the effect of attention on movement in general, on functional neurological mechanisms and on the sense of agency (of subjective control) over a movement.
Patients with a functional neurological disorder, patients with an organic neurological disorder and healthy participants will perform simple tasks, such as reaching to a target, while additional tasks will manipulate their attention. The effects of these attentional manipulations will be analysed on several levels: movement performance, analysed by the kinematics and electromyography (EMG), psychophysical measures, such as the sense of agency, and the neural correlates with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
If the hypothesis turns out to be true, then changing the attentional focus could be used as a treatment in functional neurological disorders.