Sunday, June 1, 2008

The Neuropsychology of handwriting

Patients with Parkinson's disease have a tendency to micrographia, that is small handwriting that is technically and qualitatively correct in major instances. Micrographia tends to improve with the withdrawal of visual feedback (eyes closed condition) and worsens with withholding of dopaminergic drugs. Moreover, with continuation of the task, micrographia becomes worse. It is worse in copying than free writing paradigm and improved with external cues (such as lined paper). Patients have worse micrographia with worse external attentional demands. Only one report exists of macrographia, in autism.


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Teulings HL, Contreras-Vidal JL, Stelmach GE, Adler CH. Adaptation of handwriting size under distorted visual feedback in patients with Parkinson's disease and elderly and young controls.
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Kim EJ, Lee BH, Park KC, Lee WY, Na DL. Micrographia on free writing versus copying tasks in idiopathic Parkinson's disease.
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Contreras-Vidal JL, Teulings HL, Stelmach GE, Adler CH. Adaptation to changes in vertical display gain during handwriting in Parkinson's disease patients, elderly and young controls.
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Tucha O, Mecklinger L, Thome J, Reiter A, Alders GL, Sartor H, Naumann M, Lange KW.
Kinematic analysis of dopaminergic effects on skilled handwriting movements in Parkinson's disease.J Neural Transm. 2006 May;113(5):609-23.

Oliveira RM, Gurd JM, Nixon P, Marshall JC, Passingham RE. Micrographia in Parkinson's disease: the effect of providing external cues.
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Van Gemmert AW, Teulings HL, Stelmach GE.The influence of mental and motor load on handwriting movements in parkinsonian patients. Acta Psychol (Amst). 1998 Nov;100(1-2):161-75.

Van Gemmert AW, Teulings HL, Stelmach GE.Parkinsonian patients reduce their stroke size with increased processing demands.

Beversdorf DQ, Anderson JM, Manning SE, Anderson SL, Nordgren RE, Felopulos GJ, Bauman ML. Brief report: macrographia in high-functioning adults with autism spectrum disorder. J Autism Dev Disord. 2001 Feb;31(1):97-101.
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