• Media type: E-Article
  • Title: Why Don't We Move Faster? Parkinson's Disease, Movement Vigor, and Implicit Motivation
  • Contributor: Mazzoni, Pietro; Hristova, Anna; Krakauer, John W.
  • Published: Society for Neuroscience, 2007
  • Published in: The Journal of Neuroscience, 27 (2007) 27, Seite 7105-7116
  • Language: English
  • DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0264-07.2007
  • ISSN: 0270-6474; 1529-2401
  • Origination:
  • University thesis:
  • Footnote:
  • Description: <jats:p>People generally select a similar speed for a given motor task, such as reaching for a cup. One well established determinant of movement time is the speed–accuracy trade-off: movement time increases with the accuracy requirement. A second possible determinant is the energetic cost of making a movement. Parkinson's disease (PD), a condition characterized by generalized movement slowing (bradykinesia), provides the opportunity to directly explore this second possibility. We compared reaching movements of patients with PD with those of control subjects in a speed–accuracy trade-off task comprising conditions of increasing difficulty. Subjects completed as many trials as necessary to make 20 movements within a required speed range (trials to criterion,<jats:italic>N</jats:italic><jats:sub><jats:italic>c</jats:italic></jats:sub>). Difficulty was reflected in endpoint accuracy and<jats:italic>N</jats:italic><jats:sub><jats:italic>c</jats:italic></jats:sub>. Patients were as accurate as control subjects in all conditions (i.e., PD did not affect the speed–accuracy trade-off). However,<jats:italic>N</jats:italic><jats:sub><jats:italic>c</jats:italic></jats:sub>was consistently higher in patients, indicating reluctance to move fast although accuracy was not compromised. Specifically, the dependence of<jats:italic>N</jats:italic><jats:sub><jats:italic>c</jats:italic></jats:sub>on movement energy cost (slope<jats:italic>S</jats:italic><jats:sub><jats:italic>N</jats:italic></jats:sub>) was steeper in patients than in control subjects. This difference in<jats:italic>S</jats:italic><jats:sub><jats:italic>N</jats:italic></jats:sub>suggests that bradykinesia represents an implicit decision not to move fast because of a shift in the cost/benefit ratio of the energy expenditure needed to move at normal speed.<jats:italic>S</jats:italic><jats:sub><jats:italic>N</jats:italic></jats:sub>was less steep, but statistically significant, in control subjects, which demonstrates a role for energetic cost in the normal control of movement speed. We propose that, analogous to the established role of dopamine in explicit reward-seeking behavior, the dopaminergic projection to the striatum provides a signal for implicit “motor motivation.”</jats:p>
  • Access State: Open Access