"During my third-year clinical rotation in medical school, an elderly man in a wheelchair arrived at the clinic. His face was expressionless, his voice soft, and his hands trembled with that rhythmic "pill-rolling" motion, all hallmarks of Parkinson's disease. So far, it was an ordinary encounter. But as the visit ended, the professor did something entirely unexpected. He reached into his desk drawer, pulled out a small ball, and tossed it to the patient."
"This was kinesia paradoxa, a phenomenon where a person with Parkinson's, immobile a moment before, suddenly moves with fluid precision when emotion, urgency, or instinct takes hold. I was transfixed. This man, who moments earlier seemed trapped in his body, revealed that the capacity for movement still existed-it was simply hidden. I found myself wondering: How can we unlock these hidden pathways? That question guided me toward a lifelong career studying Parkinson's disease."
Kinesia paradoxa demonstrates that motor capability in Parkinson's disease is often preserved but becomes inaccessible. Sudden emotion, urgency, or instinct can transiently restore fluid, purposeful movement. Clinical anecdotes show patients who are immobile one moment then perform complex actions the next, indicating intact subconscious motor circuits. Observations of these phenomena provide insight into the brain's capacity for failure and resilience and suggest that unlocking dormant pathways could recover lost functions. Studying these episodes informs approaches to movement disorders and inspires exploration of methods to access and rehabilitate hidden neural routes.
Read at Psychology Today
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]