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Updated: Nov 18, 2025

Measuring and Manipulating Functionally Specific Neural Pathways in the Human Motor System with Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
Published on: February 23, 2020
Functional connectivity of the motor system in dystonia due to PKAN
Peter Stoeter1, Pedro Roa2, Pamela Bido2
1Department of Radiology, CEDIMAT, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Purpose:
To demonstrate deviations of functional connectivity within the motor system in dystonic patients suffering from Pantothenate Kinase Associated Neurodegeneration, a genetic and metabolic disease, which is characterized by a primary lesion in the globus pallidus.
Material And Methods:
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging data were measured during resting state in 12 patients suffering from a confirmed mutation of the PANK2 gene. In this region-of-interest based analysis, data were evaluated in respect to correlation of signal time course between basal ganglia, motor-related cortical regions and cerebellum, were related to clinical data and were compared to a control group of 20 healthy volunteers.
Results:
During resting state, correlation coefficients within the motor system were significantly lower in patients than in controls (0.025 vs. 0.133, p < 0.05). Network analysis by Network Based Statistics showed that these differences mainly affected the connectivity between a sub-network consisting of the basal ganglia and another one, the motor system-related cortical areas (p < 0.05). 6 out of 12 connections, which correlated significantly to duration of disease, were connections between both sub-networks.
Conclusion:
The finding of a reduced functional connectivity within the motor network, between the basal ganglia and cortical motor-related areas, fits well into the concept of a general functional disturbance of the motor system in PKAN.
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