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Dystonia is a chronic and incurable movement disorder. This qualitative study aimed to enhance understanding of the condition by exploring the experience of living with dystonia. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to analyse data gathered through semi-structured interviews. Eight participants were recruited via a UK-based dystonia charity. Three superordinate themes emerged from the data: (1) dealing with ignorance and uncertainty: navigating health services with a rare, poorly understood condition; (2) the challenge of social isolation: overcoming barriers to positive social identity; and (3) fear of psychological explanations: the impact of stigmatised attitudes towards psychological explanations for dystonia symptoms. Coping with a rare and chronic condition led to participants feeling isolated and stigmatised by health care services and their communities. Participants were able to overcome this challenge to their identities through the use of social support, particularly from other people with dystonia. Recommendations for reducing the stigmatising experiences of people with dystonia can help to ease the process of adjustment to the illness and enable people to pursue meaningful lives and positive identities. Recommendations for research are aimed at increasing knowledge about these processes. Dystonia has a pervasive, negative impact on the lives of people with the condition. The struggle for diagnosis marks the beginning of a period of psychological adjustment, the difficulty of which is compounded by social isolation and stigma. Support groups and peer interaction help people to integrate dystonia into their concept of a meaningful life and identity. Health professionals should play a pivotal role in assisting patients during the process of adjustment and on-going self-management through sensitive communication and signposting to wider support services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing numbers of 7 T (7 T) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners are in research and clinical use. 7 T MRI can increase the scanning speed, spatial resolution and contrast-to-noise-ratio of many neuroimaging protocols, but technical challenges in implementation have been addressed in a variety of ways across sites. In order to facilitate multi-centre studies and ensure consistency of findings across sites, it is desirable that 7 T MRI sites implement common high-quality neuroimaging protocols that can accommodate different scanner models and software versions. With the installation of several new 7 T MRI scanners in the United Kingdom, the UK7T Network was established with an aim to create a set of harmonized structural and functional neuroimaging sequences and protocols. The Network currently includes five sites, which use three different scanner platforms, provided by two different vendors. Here we describe the harmonization of functional and anatomical imaging protocols across the three different scanner models, detailing the necessary changes to pulse sequences and reconstruction methods. The harmonized sequences are fully described, along with implementation details. Example datasets acquired from the same subject on all Network scanners are made available. Based on these data, an evaluation of the harmonization is provided. In addition, the implementation and validation of a common system calibration process is described. • Harmonised neuroimaging is established on 7 tesla MRI scanners at five sites. • Efficacy of harmonisation is demonstrated with scans on one subject at all sites. • Common calibration protocols achieve better standardisation than vendor's own. • Protocols and data are available online for all current 7 tesla scanner models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]