Neural Regeneration Research ›› 2024, Vol. 19 ›› Issue (5): 977-978.doi: 10.4103/1673-5374.382988

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Assistive techniques and their added value for tremor classification in multiple sclerosis

Nabin Koirala, Abdulnasir Hossen, Ioannis U. Isaias, Jens Volkmann, Muthuraman Muthuraman*   

  1. Child Study Center, School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA (Koirala N)
    Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Sultan Qaboos University, Al-Khod, Muscat, Oman (Hossen A)
    Neural Engineering with Signal Analytics and Artificial Intelligence, Department of Neurology, University Hospital of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany (Isaias IU, Volkmann J, Muthuraman M)
    Centro Parkinson e Parkinsonism, Azienda Socio Sanitaria Territoriale G. Pini-CTO, 20126 Milan, Italy (Isaias IU)
  • Online:2024-05-15 Published:2023-10-31
  • Contact: Muthuraman Muthuraman, PhD, muthuraman_m@ukw.de.
  • Supported by:
    We would like to thank Dr. Brittany Lee for her help in proofreading the manuscript. This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) Project-ID 424778381-TRR 295 (to MM) and the Fondazione Grigioni per il Morbo di Parkinson (to IUI).

Abstract: Tremor occurs in about half of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. MS tremor has a broad frequency range of 2.5–7 Hz, with a higher prevalence of postural tremor (44%) compared to intentional tremor (6%) (Alusi et al., 2001). Tremor may affect the upper and lower extremities, head, and trunk, and may even affect the vocal cords in isolated cases of palatal tremor. MS tremor is classically attributed to lesions of the brain stem, cerebellum, or cerebellar peduncles, and tremor intensity has been shown to correlate with the number of lesions or their functional connections. However, recent work has demonstrated that inflammatory damage to the cerebello-thalamic and cortico-thalamic pathways might also play an important role in causing tremor, as it co-occurs with other signs and symptoms of MS such as dysarthria, dysmetria, dysdiadochokinesia, and dystonia (Alusi et al., 2001).