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Advanced Neurology

REVIEW ARTICLE
Neurophysiology of hypokinetic movement’s

disorders: New insights in daily clinical practice

Giorgia Sciacca*
Department of Medical, Surgical Sciences and Advanced Technologies G. F. Ingrassia, University
of Catania, Catania, Italy

Abstract
Hypokinetic movement disorders encompass a group of clinically similar diseases
that present challenges in discrimination during neurological examinations.
Characterizing a specific hypokinetic disorder is necessary for the diagnosis
and treatment in daily clinical practice. Neurophysiological tools, such as
electromyography (EMG) combined with accelerometry, motor-evoked potentials
(MEPs), electroencephalographic recording (EEG), Bereitschaftspotential (BP),
auditory-evoked cognitive potential (P300), blink reflex (BR), and R2 blink reflex
recovery cycle (R2BRRC), are useful in the differential diagnosis of movement
disorders due to the common clinical features. However, neurophysiological
assessments of movement disorders, especially hypokinetic diseases, are currently
underutilized in clinical practice as compared to a few decades ago. This review
aims to summarize practical insights gleaned from reported studies over the past
5 years (i.e., 2019 – 2023) regarding neurophysiological assessments of hypokinetic
movement disorders, emphasizing the importance of their routine application. In
*Corresponding author: particular, the methodology of the electrophysiologic evaluations pertaining to
Giorgia Sciacca hypokinetic movement disorders is assessed. Moreover, a practical approach for the
(giorgia8sciacca@gmail.com) differential diagnosis of similar movement disorder syndromes based on specific
Citation: Sciacca G. neurophysiological features is proposed. Collectively, this review of the most recent
Neurophysiology of hypokinetic neurophysiological implications in hypokinetic movement disorders highlights
movement’s disorders: New insights the practicality of these methods. Despite the advancement of other diagnostic
in daily clinical practice. Adv Neuro.
2024;3(1):1961. techniques (e.g., neuroradiological methods), neurophysiological assessments may
https://doi.org/10.36922/an.1961 be a promising tool for clinical diagnoses, due to their high accuracy and ability to
Received: October 2, 2023 categorize and manage movement disorders (e.g., hypokinetic movement disorders)
in daily clinical practice.
Accepted: January 24, 2024
Published Online: March 15, 2024
Keywords: Neurophysiology; Movement disorders; Parkinson’s disease; Multiple system
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s). atrophy; Progressive supranuclear palsy; Corticobasal syndrome
This is an Open-Access article
distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution
License, permitting distribution,
and reproduction in any medium, 1. Introduction
provided the original work is
properly cited. Movement disorders encompass a group of diseases that can be further classified into either
1
Publisher’s Note: AccScience hypokinetic or hyperkinetic movement disorders. For example, hypokinetic movement
Publishing remains neutral with disorders commonly include Parkinson’s disease (PD), atypical Parkinsonian syndromes
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional (APSs) (e.g., multiple system atrophy [MSA], progressive supranuclear palsy [PSP], and
affiliations. corticobasal syndrome [CBS]), and secondary forms of parkinsonism (e.g., vascular and

Volume 3 Issue 1 (2024) 1 https://doi.org/10.36922/an.1961