Movement Variability and Bradykinesia in Parkinson's Disease

When making discrete aiming movements, patients with Parkinson's disease show greater inherent variability in the endpoints of their movements than do normal subjects. Endpoint variability can be reduced, by moving more slowly, by utilizing visual guidance, and by making small amplitude movements. The greater variability of patients is not a universal finding, but depends on the conditions of movement. For small movements the performance of patients equates to that of controls. For larger movements the results indicate that if sufficient time is available, patients can use visual guidance (if available) to reduce the variability of their movements to the level of normals. Patients can generate fast and/or large amplitude arm movements if required, but they are erratic if made in the dark or over a short duration. Their difficulty lies not so much in the magnitude of muscle force available to them, but rather in an inability to produce it consistently for any given movement attempted. Bradykinesia may in part result from this inherent variability in that parkinsonian patients, in order to maintain accuracy within acceptable limits, are forced to increase the duration of their movements to a level where they can make use of visual guidance. In any event, theoretical explanations for the movement disorder in Parkinson's disease advanced in the literature need to take some account of this increased variability of movement.