Biological Motion Perception in Parkinson's Disease

描述（由申请人提供）：帕金森病（PD）是一种神经退行性疾病，导致视觉感知和运动缺陷。迄今为止的研究忽略了确定PD是否影响对独特且重要的视觉线索的感知，即人体运动（生物运动）。PD患者感知生物运动的能力可能与他们的运动缺陷有关，这是由运动功能和动作感知之间的共同编码系统提出的一种联系，该编码系统由已知在PD中功能障碍的额叶、运动和顶叶皮质介导。这种感知-动作联系也表明，使用人体运动的视觉训练可能有效地恢复PD中的运动缺陷。该研究的目的是调查生物运动知觉及其与PD运动的关系（目的1），并确定使用生物运动的视觉训练是否可以改善PD运动缺陷（目的2）。目的1将测量PD患者对以不同步行速度和运动模式为特征的生物运动的感知灵敏度。假设PD患者在感知健康（更快）步行速度和运动模式时会受损，并且患者的运动缺陷将显著预测其生物运动感知受损的程度。目标2将使用视觉训练范例， 将帮助患者区分不正常的、低效的运动和健康的、高效的运动。将在家中使用活动监测自然地测量患者的运动，以确定视觉训练是否导致患者日常生活中运动的功能变化。总之，这些目标将使研究人员和临床医生能够更好地了解PD如何影响其他人及其行为的视觉分析，这是一种对有效社会功能至关重要的感知能力。它还将使研究人员能够阐明PD中的感知-动作联系，包括现实世界运动与生物运动感知之间的特定关系，以及PD相关神经功能障碍如何影响这种关系。最后，它将提供关于一种新的干预措施的有效性的数据， 可以改善患者的运动障碍。这些数据对于确定视觉训练是否可以用作PD的康复技术，以改善患者在日常生活中的自然行走能力至关重要。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that leads to deficits in both visual perception and locomotion. Research to date has neglected to determine whether PD affects the perception of a unique and important visual cue, that of human body motion (biological motion). PD patients' ability to perceive biological motion may be tied to their locomotion deficits, a link suggested by a common coding system between motor function and action perception that is mediated by frontal, motor, and parietal cortices known to be dysfunctional in PD. This perception-action link also suggests that visual training using human motion may be effective in rehabilitating the locomotion deficits in PD. The goals of the proposed study are to investigate biological motion perception and its relation to locomotion in PD (Aim1), and to determine whether visual training using biological motion can improve locomotion deficits in PD (Aim 2). Aim 1 will measure PD patients' sensitivity to perceiving biological motion characterized by different walking speeds and locomotion patterns. The hypotheses are that PD patients will be impaired at perceiving healthy (faster) walking speeds and locomotion patterns, and that patients' locomotion deficits will significantly predict the extet of their impairment in biological motion perception. Aim 2 will use a visual training paradigm that will help patients to discriminate between abnormal, inefficient locomotion and healthy, efficient locomotion. Patients' locomotion will be measured naturalistically at home using activity monitoring in order to determine whether the visual training leads to functional changes in locomotion in patients' daily lives. Together, these goals will enable researchers and clinicians to better understand how PD affects the visual analysis of other humans and their actions, a perceptual ability that is critical to effective social functioning. It will also allow researchersto elucidate the perception-action link in PD, including the specific relation between real-world locomotion and biological motion perception, and how this is affected by PD-related neural dysfunction. Finally, it will provide data regarding the effectiveness of a novel intervention that may improve patients' disordered locomotion. These data will be critically important in establishing whether visual training can be used as a rehabilitation technique in PD that would improve patients' natural walking ability in daily life.