That Neuroscience Guy - Neuroscience Bite - Ataxia

Episode Date: July 5, 2022

Ataxia is another neuromotor disorder that negatively impacts coordination and overall motor function. In today's Neuroscience Bite, we discuss the neuroscience behind Ataxia.  

Hi, my name is Olof Kregolsen and I'm a neuroscientist at the University of Victoria. And in my spare time, I'm that neuroscience guy. Welcome to another Neuroscience Byte. On the Byte last week, I told you all about apraxia. On the Byte this week, I'm going to tell you about ataxia. Now this is another neural disorder, but it's quite different than apraxia. On the bike this week I'm going to tell you about ataxia. Now this is another neural disorder but it's quite different than apraxia. If you remember apraxia is a problem working with tools, combs, toothbrushes, hammers. Well ataxia is quite different even though the names are quite similar.

Basically ataxia is due to either damage to the cerebellum which is the most common thing but you can also have damage to the parietal cortex and end up with ataxia as well. Now, what is ataxia? Basically, because there's damage to brain regions that are associated with the control of movement, the parietal cortex and the cerebellum, you have poor motor control. It's typically associated with what people would call clumsy voluntary movements. So difficulty walking with balance, hand coordination, speech and swallowing, and even eye movements. So the symptom list for ataxia would look for something like this. Poor coordination, walking

unsteadily or with the feet wide apart, poor balance, difficulty with fine motor tasks such as eating, writing, or buttoning a shirt. Typically, you see tremor when that's happening so that people have trouble controlling their limb. Change in speech patterns, eye movements that are happening involuntarily, and even difficulty swallowing. Now, what causes ataxia? There's a lot of ways you can get ataxia. Basically, you just need to somehow cause damage to the parietal cortex or the cerebellum. So the causes of ataxia are alcohol misuse, strokes, tumors, brain degeneration, Malt MS, even certain medications and genetic disorders. So it's something to keep an eye out for, basically the key is to look for those movement symptoms. Now, you always have to bear in mind there are a lot of things that can result in poor

coordination. So if your coordination seems like it's a little bit off, you probably don't have ataxia. But it's worth having it looked into. Now, the only way to diagnose ataxia is through neuroimaging. You might get the symptom checklist that's there, but you do need a doctor to diagnose it. It's very similar to Parkinson's disease. A lot of people that have Parkinson's disease, when they get their movement issues that come

with it, the symptoms are very similar to those that you see with ataxia. So there's a brief bit on ataxia, which is different from apraxia. Remember, just quickly, ataxia is damage to the parietal cortex or the cerebellum, and it's going to result in poor motor output and a reduction in coordination. My name is Olof Kregolsen, and I'm that neuroscience guy. Thank you so much for listening to another Neuroscience Byte. I will see you on Sunday for a full episode of the podcast. Remember, send us show ideas through Twitter.

You can follow me, at That Neuroscience Guy, and DM me directly. Subscribe to the podcast, of course, and check out the website, thatneuroscienceguy.com, where there's links to our T-shirts that we sell through our Etsy store, and also to Patreon, where you can support us directly. Thank you so much for listening, and I'll see you again soon.