Dystonia
Dystonia is one of the most common movement disorders with a prevelance in the population of 1 in every 1000 suffer from Dystonia. There is no single test that can be used to diagnose either of these disorders but they are recognised as a collection of symptoms. Furthermore, there are no known cures just treatments to manage the symptoms hence there is a high impact on the quality of life and financial costs to managing the diseases. This cost is further exasperated by the growing aging population. My research uses a variety of different techniques such as virtual reality, simple behavioural tasks and neuroimaging to gain insight on the disorders.
I have been involved in a series of studies looking at temporal discrimation as a behavioural endophenotype for Dystonia and a gateway to understanding the underlying mechanisms.
Selected References
L. Williams, E. McGovern, O. Kimmich, A.Molloy, I. Beisser, J. S. Butler, F. Molloy, P.Logan, DG Healy, T Lynch, R Walsh, L Cassidy, P Moriarty, H Moore, T McSwiney, C Walsh, S. O'Riordan, M. Hutchinson, (2016) "Epidemiological, clinical and genetic aspects of adult onset isolated focal dystonia in Ireland"
B. Quinlivan, J. S. Butler, I Beiser, L Williams, E McGovern, S. O'Riordan, M. Hutchinson, R.B Reilly, (2016) "Application of virtual reality head mounted display for investigation of human kinematics; a novel representation of the Posner cueing effect" Journal of Neural Engineering
J S Butler*, I Beiser, L Williams, E McGovern, F Molloy, T Lynch, D G Healy, H Moore, R Walsh, R B Reilly, S O'Riordan, C Walsh, M Hutchinson (2015), "Age-Related Sexual Dimorphism in Temporal Discrimination and in Adult-Onset Dystonia Suggests GABAergic Mechanisms.", Frontiers in Neurology
L. Williams, J. S. Butler*, A.Molloy O. Kimmich, I. Beisser, E. McGovern, B. Quinlivan, S. O'Riordan, R.B Reilly, M. Hutchinson, (Accepted) "Women do it better: sexual dimorphism in temporal discrimination" Frontiers in Neurology Feb 2015
J. S. Butler, A.Molloy, L. Williams, O. Kimmich, I. Beisser, E. McGovern, B. Quinlivan, S. O'Riordan, M. Hutchinson, R.B Reilly, (2015) " Non-parametric bootstrapping method for measuring the temporal discrimination threshold for Movement Disorders" Journal of Neural Engineering
A.Molloy, O. Kimmich, L. Williams, J. S. Butler, I. Beisser, E. McGovern, R.B Reilly, S. O'Riordan, C. Walsh, M. Hutchinson, (2015) "Sun
exposure is an environmental factor for the development of blepharospasm" Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry
Featured in the Irish Medical Times and in Medical Xpress.
Collaborators
- Prof Richard Reilly (Trinity College Dublin)
- Prof Michael Hutchinson (St Vincent's Hospital)
