Effects of Botulinum Toxin in Cervical Dystonia

This study of MEG neuro-imagery will increase the understanding of the central pathway involvement in the efficacy of botulinum toxin treatment for torticollis. Cervical dystonia (spasmodic torticollis) patients will be selected from the Neurology clinic. Subjects will range in age from 18 years old through 90 years old. Subjects are expected to be ambulatory and independent. Patients are generally expected to be in good health. Exclusion criteria include significant intracranial metal (typically fixed dental bridges or braces) generating significant magnetic artifact, medical instability, pregnancy, and certain other factors such as severe head tremors that would produce magnetic artifact. Clinical states of torticollis patients will be assessed by using Tsui scale. Every torticollis patient will have magnetoencephalography on the day of botulinum treatment beforehand and approximately 2-8 weeks after botulinum treatment. We will compare the results of magnetoencephalography between control subject and torticollis patient before botulinum treatment aiming to find any difference between the two populations. We also compare the results of magnetoencephalography in individual torticollis patient before and after botulinum treatment, aiming to detect the changes between these two conditions in the same individual and possibly between the average of data from each condition before and after botulinum treatment.