Signs and symptoms of pseudobulbar palsy include:

- Slow and indistinct speech

- Dysphagia (difficulty in swallowing)

- Small, stiff and spastic tongue

- Brisk jaw jerk

- Dysarthria

- Labile affect

- Gag reflex may be normal, exaggerated or absent

- Examination may reveal upper motor neuron lesion of the limbs

Flaccid dysarthria is a motor speech disorder resulting from damage to peripheral nervous system (cranial or spinal nerves) or lower motor neuron system. Depending on which nerves are damaged, flaccid dysarthria affects respiration, phonation, resonance, and articulation. It also causes weakness, hypotonia (low-muscle tone), and diminished reflexes., Perceptual effects of flaccid dysarthria can include hypernasality, imprecise consonant productions, breathiness of voice, and affected nasal emission.

Flaccid dysarthria is caused when damage occurs to the motor unit (one or more cranial or spinal nerves). Processes that can cause this include:

- Congenital disorders

- Demyelinating disorders

- Infectious/Inflammatory

- Degenerative disorders

- Metabolic

- Neoplastic

- Traumatic

- Vascular Diseases

- Flaccid Paralysis

ADCP is often characterized by slow, uncontrolled movements of the extremities and trunk. Small, rapid, random and repetitive, uncontrolled movements known as chorea may also occur. Involuntary movements often increase during periods of emotional stress or excitement and disappear when the patient is sleeping or distracted. Patients experience difficulty in maintaining posture and balance when sitting, standing, and walking due to these involuntary movements and fluctuations in muscle tone. Coordinated activities such as reaching and grasping may also be challenging. Muscles of the face and tongue can be affected, causing involuntary facial grimaces, expressions, and drooling. Speech and language disorders, known as dysarthria, are common in athetoid CP patients. In addition, ADCP patients may have trouble eating. Hearing loss is a common co-occurring condition, and visual disabilities can be associated with Athetoid Cerebral Palsy. Squinting and uncontrollable eye movements may be initial signs and symptoms. Children with these disabilities rely heavily on visual stimulation, especially those who are also affected by sensory deafness.

Cognitive impairment occur in 30% of cases.

Epilepsy occur in 25% of cases.

Cerebellar ataxia can occur as a result of many diseases and presents with symptoms of an inability to coordinate balance, gait, extremity and eye movements. Lesions to the cerebellum can cause dyssynergia, dysmetria, dysdiadochokinesia, dysarthria and ataxia of stance and gait. Deficits are observed with movements on the same side of the body as the lesion (ipsilateral). Clinicians often use visual observation of people performing motor tasks in order to look for signs of ataxia.

There are many causes of cerebellar ataxia including, among others, gluten ataxia, autoimmunity to Purkinje cells or other neural cells in the cerebellum, CNS vasculitis, multiple sclerosis, infection, bleeding, infarction, tumors, direct injury, toxins (e.g., alcohol), genetic disorders, and an association with statin use. Gluten ataxia accounts for 40% of all sporadic idiopathic ataxias and 15% of all ataxias.

Pseudobulbar palsy is a medical condition characterized by the inability to control facial movements (such as chewing and speaking) and caused by a variety of neurological disorders. Patients experience difficulty chewing and swallowing, have increased reflexes and spasticity in tongue and the bulbar region, and demonstrate slurred speech (which is often the initial presentation of the disorder), sometimes also demonstrating uncontrolled emotional outbursts.

The condition is usually caused by the damage (bilateral degeneration) to the neurons of the brain stem, specifically to the corticobulbar tract (upper motor neuron tract to cranial nerve motor nuclei).

The extensor Babinski reflex is usually absent. Muscle paresis/paralysis, hypotonia/atonia, and hyporeflexia/areflexia are usually seen immediately following an insult. Muscle wasting, fasciculations and fibrillations are typically signs of end-stage muscle denervation and are seen over a longer time period. Another feature is the segmentation of symptoms – only muscles innervated by the damaged nerves will be symptomatic.

Oromandibular Symptoms

- difficulty opening the mouth (trismus)

- clenching or grinding of the teeth (bruxism)

- spasms of jaw opening

- sideways deviation or protrusion of the jaw

- lip tightening and pursing

- drawing back (retraction) of the corners of the mouth

- deviation or protrusion of the tongue.

- jaw pain

- difficulties eating and drinking

- difficulties speaking (dysarthria)

Blepharospasm symptoms

- the first symptom to appear is an increased rate of blinking

- uncontrollable squinting/closing of eyes

- light sensitivity (photophobia)

- squinting/eyes closing during speech

- uncontrollable eyes closing shut (rare instances completely causing blindness)

In addition, in some patients, the dystonic spasms may sometimes be provoked by certain activities, such as talking, chewing, or biting. Particular activities or sensory tricks may sometimes temporarily alleviate OMD symptoms, including chewing gum, talking, placing a toothpick in the mouth, lightly touching the lips or chin, or applying pressure beneath the chin.

Athetoid cerebral palsy or dyskinetic cerebral palsy (sometimes abbreviated ADCP) is a type of cerebral palsy primarily associated with damage, like other forms of CP, to the basal ganglia in the form of lesions that occur during brain development due to bilirubin encephalopathy and hypoxic-ischemic brain injury. Unlike spastic or ataxic cerebral palsies, ADCP is characterized by both hypertonia and hypotonia, due to the affected individual's inability to control muscle tone. Clinical diagnosis of ADCP typically occurs within 18 months of birth and is primarily based upon motor function and neuroimaging techniques. While there are no cures for ADCP, some drug therapies as well as speech, occupational therapy, and physical therapy have shown capacity for treating the symptoms.

Classification of cerebral palsy can be based on severity, topographic distribution, or motor function. Severity is typically assessed via the Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) or the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (described further below). Classification based on motor characteristics classifies CP as occurring from damage to either the corticospinal pathway or extrapyramidal regions. Athetoid dyskinetic cerebral palsy is a non-spastic, extrapyramidal form of cerebral palsy (spastic cerebral palsy, in contrast, results from damage to the brain’s corticospinal pathways). Non-spastic cerebral palsy is divided into two groups, ataxic and dyskinetic. Dyskinetic cerebral palsy is separated further into two different groups; choreoathetoid and dystonic. Choreo-athetotic CP is characterized by involuntary movements most predominantly found in the face and extremities. Dystonic ADCP is characterized by slow, strong contractions, which may occur locally or encompass the whole body.

Clinically, physicians have also classified cerebral palsy according to the topographic distribution of muscle spasticity. This method classifies children as diplegic, (bilateral involvement with leg involvement greater than arm involvement), hemiplegic (unilateral involvement), or quadriplegic (bilateral involvement with arm involvement equal to or greater than leg involvement).

The Greek word "blepharon" means "eyelid". Spasm means "uncontrolled muscle contraction". The term blepharospasm ['blef-a-ro-spaz-m] can be applied to any abnormal blinking or eyelid tic or twitch resulting from any cause, ranging from dry eyes to Tourette's syndrome to tardive dyskinesia. The blepharospasm referred to here is officially called benign essential blepharospasm (BEB) to distinguish it from the less serious secondary blinking disorders. "Benign" indicates the condition is not life-threatening, and "essential" is a medical term meaning "of unknown cause". It is both a cranial and a focal dystonia. Cranial refers to the head and focal indicates confinement to one part. The word dystonia describes abnormal involuntary sustained muscle contractions and spasms. Patients with blepharospasm have normal eyes. The visual disturbance is due solely to the forced closure of the eyelids.

Oromandibular dystonia (OMD) is a form of focal dystonia that affects varying areas of the head and neck including the lower face, jaw, tongue and larynx. The spasms may cause the mouth to pull open, shut tight, or move repetitively. Speech and swallowing may be distorted. It is often associated with dystonia of the cervical muscles (Spasmodic Torticollis), eyelids (Blepharospasm), or larynx (Spasmodic Dysphonia).

In patients with OMD, involuntary contractions may involve the muscles used for chewing (masticatory muscles). These may include the thick muscle in the cheek that closes the jaw (masseter muscle) and the broad muscle that draws back the lower jaw and closes the mouth (temporalis muscle). Some patients may also experience involuntary contractions of the wide muscle at the side of the neck (platysmal muscle). This muscle draws down the corner of the mouth and lower lip or other muscle groups.

FLD produces rapidly progressive weakness of tongue, face and pharyngeal muscles in a clinical pattern similar to myasthenia. Neuromuscular transmission may be abnormal in these muscles because of rapid denervation and immature reinnervation. Paralysis occurs secondary to degeneration of the motor neurons of the brain stem. It causes progressive bulbar paralysis due to involvement of motor neurons of the cranial nerve nuclei. The most frequent symptoms at onset of progressive bulbar paralysis of childhood has been a unilateral facial paralysis. It is followed in frequency by dysarthria due to facial weakness or by dysphagia. Palatal weakness and palpebral ptosis also have been reported in few patients. Both sexes can be affected.

OPCA is characterized by progressive cerebellar ataxia, leading to clumsiness in body movements, veering from midline when walking, wide-based stance, and falls without signs of paralysis or weakness. Clinical presentation can vary greatly between patients, but mostly affects speech, balance and walking. Other possible neurological problems include spasmodic dysphonia, hypertonia, hyperreflexia, rigidity, dysarthria, dysphagia and neck dystonic posture.

Most common causes of lower motor neuron injuries are trauma to peripheral nerves that serve the axons – a virus that selectively attacks ventral horn cells.

Disuse atrophy of the muscle occurs i.e., shrinkage of muscle fibre finally replaced by fibrous tissue (fibrous muscle)

Other causes include Guillain–Barré syndrome, "C. botulism", polio, and cauda equina syndrome; another common cause of lower motor neuron degeneration is amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Most cases of autosomal recessive cerebellar ataxia are early onset, usually around the age of 20. People with this type of ataxia share many characteristic symptoms including:

- frequent falls due to poor balance

- imprecise hand coordination

- postural or kinetic tremor of extremities or trunk

- dysarthria

- dysphasia

- vertigo

- diplopia

- lower extremity tendon reflexes

- dysmetria

- minor abnormalities in ocular saccades

- attention defects

- impaired verbal working memory and visuospatial skills

- Normal life expectancy

Autosomal recessive ataxias are generally associated with a loss of proprioception and vibration sense. Arreflexia is more common in autosomal recessive ataxia than autosomal dominant ataxias. Also, they tend to have more involvement outside of the nervous system. Mutations in subunit of the mitochondrial DNA polymerase (POLG) have been found to be a potential cause of autosomal recessive cerebellar ataxia.

Signs and symptoms of CBPS typically appear in infancy or at birth, but can appear later in childhood. These include facial diplegia (paralysis on both sides), facial muscle spasms, pseudobulbar palsy, dysarthria (difficulty speaking), difficulty chewing, dysphagia (difficulty swallowing), epilepsy, and intellectual disability. Epileptic seizures in individuals with CBPS are different between individuals and can vary between episodes.

Autosomal recessive cerebellar ataxia type 1 (ARCA1) is a condition characterized by progressive problems with movement. Signs and symptoms of the disorder first appear in early to mid-adulthood. People with this condition initially experience impaired speech (dysarthria), problems with coordination and balance (ataxia), or both. They may also have difficulty with movements that involve judging distance or scale (dysmetria). Other features of ARCA1 include abnormal eye movements (nystagmus) and problems following the movements of objects with their eyes. The movement problems are slowly progressive, often resulting in the need for a cane, walker, or wheelchair.

Olivopontocerebellar atrophy (OPCA) is the degeneration of neurons in specific areas of the brain – the cerebellum, pons, and inferior olives. OPCA is present in several neurodegenerative syndromes, including inherited and non-inherited forms of ataxia (such as the hereditary spinocerebellar ataxia known as Machado–Joseph disease) and multiple system atrophy (MSA), with which it is primarily associated.

OPCA may also be found in the brains of individuals with prion disorders and inherited metabolic diseases. The characteristic areas of brain damage that indicate OPCA can be seen by imaging the brain using CT scans or MRI studies.

The term was originally coined by Joseph Jules Dejerine and André Thomas.

Dysarthrias are classified in multiple ways based on the presentation of symptoms. Specific dysarthrias include spastic (resulting from bilateral damage to the upper motor neuron), flaccid (resulting from bilateral or unilateral damage to the lower motor neuron), ataxic (resulting from damage to cerebellum), unilateral upper motor neuron (presenting milder symptoms than bilateral UMN damage), hyperkinetic and hypokinetic (resulting from damage to parts of the basal ganglia, such as in Huntington's disease or Parkinsonism), and the mixed dysarthrias (where symptoms of more than one type of dysarthria are present). The majority of dysarthric patients are diagnosed as having 'mixed' dysarthria, as neural damage resulting in dysarthria is rarely contained to one part of the nervous system — for example, multiple strokes, traumatic brain injury, and some kinds of degenerative illnesses (such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) usually damage many different sectors of the nervous system.

Ataxic dysarthria is an acquired neurological and sensorimotor speech deficit. It is a common diagnosis among the clinical spectrum of ataxic disorders. Since regulation of skilled movements is a primary function of the cerebellum, damage to the superior cerebellum and the superior cerebellar peduncle is believed to produce this form of dysarthria in ataxic patients. Growing evidence supports the likelihood of cerebellar involvement specifically affecting speech motor programming and execution pathways, producing the characteristic features associated with ataxic dysarthria. This link to speech motor control can explain the abnormalities in articulation and prosody, which are hallmarks of this disorder. Some of the most consistent abnormalities observed in patients with ataxia dysarthria are alterations of the normal timing pattern, with prolongation of certain segments and a tendency to equalize the duration of syllables when speaking. As the severity of the dysarthria increases, the patient may also lengthen more segments as well as increase the degree of lengthening of each individual segment.

Common clinical features of ataxic dysarthria include abnormalities in speech modulation, rate of speech, explosive or scanning speech, slurred speech, irregular stress patterns, and vocalic and consonantal misarticulations.

Ataxic dysarthria is associated with damage to the left cerebellar hemisphere in right-handed patients.

Dysarthria may affect a single system; however, it is more commonly reflected in multiple motor-speech systems. The etiology, degree of neuropathy, existence of co-morbidities, and the individual's response all play a role in the effect the disorder has on the individual's quality of life. Severity ranges from occasional articulation difficulties to verbal speech that is completely unintelligible.

Individuals with dysarthria may experience challenges in the following:

- Timing

- Vocal quality

- Pitch

- Volume

- Breath control

- Speed

- Strength

- Steadiness

- Range

- Tone

Examples of specific observations include a continuous breathy voice, irregular breakdown of articulation, monopitch, distorted vowels, word flow without pauses, and hypernasality.

ARSACS is usually diagnosed in early childhood, approximately 12–24 months of age when a child begins to take their first steps. At this time it manifests as a lack of coordination and balance resulting in frequent falls. Some of the signs and symptoms include:

- Stiffness of the legs

- Appendicular and trunk ataxia

- Hollow foot and hand deformities

- Ataxic dysarthria

- Distal muscle wasting

- Horizontal gaze nystagmus

- Spasticity

Dysdiadochokinesia is a feature of cerebellar ataxia and may be the result of lesions to either the cerebellar hemispheres or the frontal lobe (of the cerebrum), it can also be a combination of both. It is thought to be caused by the inability to switch on and switch off antagonising muscle groups in a coordinated fashion due to hypotonia, secondary to the central lesion.

Dysdiadochokinesia is also seen in Friedreich's ataxia and multiple sclerosis, as a cerebellar symptom (including ataxia, intention tremor and dysarthria). It is also a feature of ataxic dysarthria. Dysdiadochokinesia often presents in motor speech disorders (dysarthria), therefore testing for dysdiadochokinesia can be used for a differential diagnosis.

Dysdiadochokinesia has been linked to a mutation in "SLC18A2", which encodes vesicular monoamine transporter 2 (VMAT2).

Typically, episodic ataxia presents as bouts of ataxia induced by startle, stress, or exertion. Some patients also have continuous tremors of various motor groups, known as myokymia. Other patients have nystagmus, vertigo, tinnitus, diplopia or seizures.

Dysdiadochokinesia, dysdiadochokinesis, dysdiadokokinesia, dysdiadokokinesis (from Greek "δυς" "dys" "bad", "διάδοχος" "diadochos" "succeeding", "κίνησις" "kinesis" "movement"), often abbreviated as DDK, is the medical term for an impaired ability to perform rapid, alternating movements (i.e., diadochokinesia). Complete inability is called adiadochokinesia.

The syndrome typically presents as a progressive flaccid symmetric paralysis with areflexia, often causing respiratory failure. Electromyographic studies and nerve conduction studies show normal motor conduction velocity and latency with decreased amplitude of compound muscle action potentials. F wave and sensory nerve action potentials are often normal in this illness. Pathologically, it is a noninflammatory axonopathy without demyelination. Antibodies attack the coating of the motor neurons without causing inflammation or loss of myelin. It does not affect sensory neurons, so sensation remains intact despite loss of movement.

Episodic ataxia type-3 (EA3) is similar to EA1 but often also presents with tinnitus and vertigo. Patients typically present with bouts of ataxia lasting less than 30 minutes and occurring once or twice daily. During attacks, they also have vertigo, nausea, vomiting, tinnitus and diplopia. These attacks are sometimes accompanied by headaches and precipitated by stress, fatigue, movement and arousal after sleep. Attacks generally begin in early childhood and last throughout the patients' lifetime. Acetazolamide administration has proved successful in some patients. As EA3 is extremely rare, there is currently no known causative gene. The locus for this disorder has been mapped to the long arm of chromosome 1 (1q42).