TORONTO, February 14, 2002 -- Douglas Crawford, Canada Research Chair in Neuroscience at York University, and his team of researchers have discovered that the midbrain site known as the interstitial nucleus of Cajal (INC) is responsible for controlling the neck muscles that maintain head posture.

Moreover, Crawford and his team determined that an imbalance between the left and right INC brain structure, through either direct damage or improper neural input, could be one of the causes of torticollis, a rare and often painful medical condition which contorts the neck muscles and affects a person's ability to hold their head upright.

The findings will be published in an article, "Midbrain Control of Three-Dimensional Head Orientation" in tomorrow's international journal Science.

Crawford was also involved in earlier groundbreaking research linking the INC to eye movement.

"Without a normal balance of neural activity across the two sides of the midbrain, you simply can’t hold your head upright or keep your vision pointed toward an interesting object," says Crawford, a professor of psychology and a member of the York Centre for Vision Research. "These findings will provide a better understanding of torticollis and for developing a treatment."

Crawford's research team for the study included: Dr. Hongying Wang (research associate), Eliana M. Klier (PhD candidate) and Alina-Geta Constantin (MA candidate).

A copy of the article can be obtained by calling Science, at 202-326-6440.

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For further information, please contact:

Douglas Crawford	Ken Turriff
Canadian Research Chair in Neuroscience	Media Relations
York University	York University
416-736-2100, ext. 88621	416-736-2100, ext. 22086
jdc@yorku.ca	kturriff@yorku.ca

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