Predicting Motor Learning of an Upper Limb Task Based on Behavioral and Disease-specific Characteristics in Patients With Parkinson's Disease

Brief summary (registry, in English)

Manual dexterity deficits and loss of motor automaticity are commonly seen in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Amongst these problems, using a touchscreen is becoming increasingly burdensome. In addition, a variety of non-motor symptoms, including cognitive impairment have a significant impact on the quality of life of patients with PD which will also affect the use of mobile devices. As the degradation of dopaminergic neurons in the striatum results in an impaired capacity for motor learning and more specifically for consolidation in motor memory, the investigators want to unravel the remaining rehabilitation potential in this patient group. Recent work on the consolidation of an intensive writing training program from our group, indicated inconsistent and variable results on retention of learning gains, which strongly depended on the clinical profile of the patients involved. This raises the question whether it is possible to predict different training responses and better understand how this is determined by clinical characteristics, such as disease severity and the degree of cognitive impairment. Also, baseline task performance and early acquisition may determine long-term learning outcomes. Our main focus (primary dependent outcome) is to know which patients will be able to retain the learning gains after 4 weeks without training. For this aim, the investigators will use a home-based training program of a touchscreen task called the Swipe-Slide Pattern (SSP) task. Training of this SSP-task will be offered on a tablet under single and dual task conditions in a random fashion, not only to provide variation but also to increase the cognitive challenge, thereby stimulating consolidation. A crucial factor, which may affect the success of training, is compliance, which the investigators will measure objectively for the first time. As independent variables the investigators will measure several motor and cognitive functions as well as compliance, while including a broad sample of PD patients.

What you commit to

• Study type: Observational
• Participants enrolled: 100
• From 10 Jan 2022 to the primary completion date, 12 Dec 2024
• 1 site in 1 country
• Visits and tests: ask the trial team, the registry does not list them

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Who cannot take part

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Who the study is looking for

Sex: All · Does not accept healthy volunteers

Full criteria on ClinicalTrials.gov

Sites (1)

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