Investigation of MRI Brain Changes in DevelopmentalCoordination Disorder and Friedreich’s ataxia

‘To move things is all mankind can do. ... whether whispering a syllable or felling a forest.’ - Charles Sherrington --- The human motor system is one of the most complicated systems in the human body. This complex system of interactions and collaborations between different regions of the human nervous system enables humans to interact with their external environment. Several parts of the human central nervous system are required to communicate effectively to send signals to the target muscles to carry out the final voluntary or involuntary movements. At the level of the central nervous system (CNS), motor planning and control form the essential element of any voluntary movements and several models have been suggested to describe these processes. Internal models, and specifically the ‘forward model’ is one of the most recognised theories of human motor control function. In this thesis, I have investigated two different movement disorders in which motor dysfunction is suggested to be involved in motor planning level in one disorder and motor execution in the other. I used several novel MRI methods to elucidate the neuro-mechanisms and brain regions likely to be involved in motor impairment in these two disorders, developmental coordination disorder (DCD) and (Freidreich’s ataxia) FRDA. Integral to this process was an endeavor to investigate human motor control theory and examine its pathological aspects through the window of neuroimaging.