Biological Motion Perception in Parkinson's Disease

描述(申请人提供)：帕金森病(PD)是一种神经退行性疾病，导致视觉和运动能力障碍。到目前为止，研究忽略了确定帕金森病是否会影响对一种独特而重要的视觉线索--人体运动(生物运动)的感知。帕金森病患者感知生物运动的能力可能与他们的运动缺陷有关，这种联系是由运动功能和动作知觉之间的共同编码系统提出的，该编码系统由已知的帕金森病患者的额叶、运动和顶叶皮质调节。这种知觉-动作联系也表明，使用人类运动的视觉训练可能在恢复帕金森病患者的运动缺陷方面有效。本研究的目的是探讨帕金森病患者(Aim1)的生物运动知觉及其与运动的关系，并确定使用生物运动的视觉训练是否能改善帕金森病患者的运动缺陷(Aim 2)。目的1测量帕金森病患者对不同行走速度和运动模式下生物运动感知的敏感性。假设帕金森病患者在感知健康(更快)的步行速度和运动模式时会受到损害，患者的运动缺陷将显著预测他们在生物运动感知方面的损害程度。目标2将使用视觉训练范例， 将帮助患者区分异常、低效的运动和健康、有效的运动。患者的运动将在家中使用活动监测进行自然测量，以确定视觉训练是否会导致患者日常生活中的运动功能改变。总而言之，这些目标将使研究人员和临床医生能够更好地理解帕金森病如何影响对其他人及其行为的视觉分析，这是一种对有效的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帕金森病的知觉-行动联系，包括现实世界运动和生物运动知觉之间的具体关系，以及与帕金森病相关的神经功能障碍如何影响这一关系。最后，它将提供关于一种新型干预措施有效性的数据 可能会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作为一种康复技术用于帕金森病以改善患者日常生活中的自然行走能力将是至关重要的。 公共卫生相关性：帕金森氏症会导致视觉和运动能力的缺陷，这可能会对患者的生活质量产生负面影响，这项研究将增加关于帕金森氏症患者如何感知人体运动的知识，以及这种能力如何受到他们自身在产生身体运动方面的限制的影响。这项研究还将试图研究是否可以通过训练患者在视觉上区分正常行走和受损行走来改善他们的行走困难。所获得的知识将使患者和他们的护理人员更好地了解帕金森氏症的视觉和运动障碍，并为改善患者遭受的令人衰弱的运动限制的干预措施的有效性提供重要证据。

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. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Parkinson's disease leads to deficits in visual and motor abilities that can negatively affect patients' quality of life, and this research will increase knowledge on how individuals with Parkinson's disease perceive human body movements and how this ability is affected by their own limitations in producing body movements. This research will also attempt to study whether patients' walking difficulties can be improved by training them to visually differentiate between normal and impaired walking. The knowledge gained will allow patients and their caregivers to better understand visual and motor deficits in Parkinson's disease and provide important evidence about the effectiveness of an intervention that can improve the debilitating motor limitations that patients suffer from.