Primary task-specific bowing tremor: an entity of its own?

Abstract

A professional violinist in his early 60s, playing in a prestigious German orchestra for more than 20 years, presented to our institute because of a task-induced tremor in his right arm when playing the violin. We describe the phenomenology of this tremor and its treatment options and compare it to findings in primary writing tremor (PWT). We then discuss whether primary bowing tremor is an entity of its own (similar to PWT) and propose hypotheses that would derive from such a definition.