The dynamical structure of tremor in tardive dyskinesia

The movement disorder syndrome of tardive dyskinesia arises as a consequence of prolonged regimens of neuroleptic medication, and is characterized, although not exclusively, by jerky and sometimes rhythmical stereotypical motions in a wide range of muscle systems. It is well established that the degree and variability of tremor in tardive dyskinesia is greater than that in normal age-matched subjects. The findings from the current experiment show that the dimension of the tardive dyskinetic finger tremor time series is systematically lower than that evident in normal finger tremor. Furthermore, the variability of finger motion in both groups is inversely related to the dimension of the respective attractor dynamic. The neuroleptic medication appears to constrain the degrees of freedom regulated in organization of the motor system. (c) 1995 American Institute of Physics.