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On Mon 09 Aug, Tom Riess wrote:
> Dear Judith,
>
> You were the only one who responded to my question: DOES CLOSING YOUR EYES
> HAVE ANY EFFECT ON YOUR DYSKINESIA?  Your answer "WOW! - It stops..."  does
> not surprise me.
> So now back to  the original question;  "What is dyskinesia?"
>
Hello Tom: First let me thank you for an absolutely fascinating series
of observations. I took some time before answering your first 'teaser'
because I wanted to experience what happens at first hand, and since I
do not live in a state of dyskinesia all the time, I wanted to creep up
on it slowly and carefully.
   I have not tested whether closing one's eyes still works in the case
of severe kyskinesia  (there are limits to my scientific zeal) but in the
light to medium range of dyskinesias I can certainly endorse your
observation that dyskinesias fade away if you close your eyes.

You may also be right in your observation that freezing is connected
with our vision.  I had previously learned (was it from you?) that
when locked into the old 'soft shoe shuffle' , I could get out of the
condition by looking straight ahead instead of down at my feet.

So what have we got so far?  : I know (and I hope you accept this as
established fact) that freezing/shuffling is only experienced by PWPs
when they are under-medicated  (that is,  they are not getting enough
dopamine. Similarly, dyskinesias are only experienced when a PWP has
taken  too much levadopa and has a dopamine excess in the brain.
I like your view of the overall feedback system incorporating the
visual system - it makes a lot of sense.

In my model of the brain and its response to dopamine this excess of
dopamine occcurs when a tablet containing too much levodopa has been
taken. This is the only way that dyskinesias can be produced - it is
quite alien to a 'normal' brain (including a brain which has lost a lot
of dopamine producing cells, but not enough to lose control.

There is still a missing link though: I visualise the dopamine excess
literally flooding parts of the brain - most likely into the basal
ganglia  where it was heading anyway, and this excess dopamine floods
or lubricates a random selection of nerves so that when the electrical
command comes down the nerve, some of it gets diverted to other pathways.
To expand on that a little; my observation is that we each have our own
patterns of dyskinesia. My suggestion is that in any given PWP the
pattern of flooding will be essentially the same, but since the layout
of each person's Basal ganglia varies from person to person, each of us
would expect to have different and distinctive dyskinesias.

I think there is more juice to be squeezed out of this subject - your turn?

Regards,
--
Brian Collins  <[log in to unmask]>