Language and Executive Function in Parkinson's Disease: Effects of dual task and

描述（由申请人提供）：近80%的PD患者出现认知障碍，语言功能障碍的发生率越来越高。PD患者的认知和语言缺陷严重影响了交际效果和生活质量，并限制了许多日常生活工具活动的成功表现。不幸的是，目前PD的药物和手术干预不能可靠地改善认知，甚至可能产生有害的认知副作用。语言问题通常被PD中更突出的运动症状所掩盖，很少得到治疗。因此，没有有效的治疗方法可以改善PD患者的认知或语言障碍。为了解决这些问题，本探索性研究探讨了有氧运动对特发性PD患者认知和语言表现的影响。由于日常生活活动往往需要同时执行多项任务的能力，我们将测试有氧运动在单任务和双任务条件下作为认知和语言干预的功效。我们的一般假设是，有氧运动增强了神经可塑性，特别是在额叶，因此，将增强有氧运动组的认知和语言产生的行为测量。假设将在两个特定目的下进行检验：1)确定有氧运动是否改善特发性PD的认知表现；2)确定有氧运动是否影响特发性PD的语言产生。将招募48名PD患者并随机分为三组：有氧运动组、拉伸干预组和非接触对照组。这种创新的方法将使我们能够控制PD组的学习和社会接触效应，确定有氧运动干预是否有效改善PD的认知和/或语言缺陷，并比较有氧运动和普遍推荐的拉伸运动计划对PD的认知和语言的影响的相对幅度。此外，它将允许我们通过评估单任务和双任务条件下的表现来确定有氧运动对PD患者认知和语言影响的稳健性。这个探索性项目的发现可能会大大推进PD治疗的发展，因为他们探索了一种对认知和语言障碍的无药物干预，这种干预可能会对患者的健康产生普遍影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Nearly 80% of individuals with PD develop cognitive impairment and suffer increasing incidence of language dysfunction. These cognitive and language deficits in PD seriously compromise communicative effectiveness and quality of life, and limit the successful performance of many instrumental activities of daily living. Unfortunately, the current pharmacological and surgical interventions for PD fail to reliably improve cognition and may even create deleterious cognitive side effects. Language problems are usually overshadowed by the more prominent motor symptoms in PD and are rarely treated. As a result, no active treatments exist for improving either cognitive or language impairments in PD. To address these issues, the proposed exploratory study investigates the impact of aerobic exercise on cognitive and language performance in individuals with idiopathic PD. Because activities of daily life often require the ability to perform multiple tasks simultaneously, we will test the efficacy of aerobic exercise as an intervention for cognition and language in both single and dual task conditions. Our general hypothesis is that aerobic exercise potentiates neuroplasticity, particularly in the frontal lobes and, thus, will enhance behavioral measures of cognition and language production in the aerobic exercise group. Hypotheses will be tested under two specific aims: 1) Determine whether aerobic exercise improves cognitive performance in idiopathic PD, and 2) Determine whether aerobic exercise impacts language production in idiopathic PD. Forty-eight individuals with PD will be recruited and randomized into one of three groups: aerobic exercise, stretch intervention, or non-contact control. This innovative approach will allow us to control for learning and social contact effects in the PD group, determine whether the aerobic exercise intervention is efficacious for improving cognition and/or language deficits in PD, and compare the relative magnitude of the effects of aerobic exercise and a commonly-recommended stretch exercise program on cognition and language in PD. Furthermore, it will allow us to determine the robustness of the effects of aerobic exercise on cognition and language in PD by evaluating performance under single and dual task conditions. The findings from this exploratory project may substantially advance the development of treatments for PD, because they explore a drug-free intervention for cognitive and language impairment that can potentially have pervasive effects on patient well-being. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Parkinson's disease impairs not only motor function but cognitive and language abilities. This study evaluates the impact of aerobic exercise, relative to stretch exercise and no exercise, on cognitive performance and language production In Parkinson's disease using both single and dual task experimental paradigms.