Suprapostural Attention Focus and Postural Difficulty on H-reflex and Brain Activity: Aging and Parkinson's Disease

Parkinson Clinical Trial

Official title:

The Effects of Suprapostural Attention Focus and Postural Difficulty on H-reflex and Brain Activity: Aging and Parkinson's Disease

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT02539446
• Other study ID #: 201312077RINC
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: October 2014
• Est. completion date: September 2016

Study information

• Verified date: October 2016
• Source: National Taiwan University Hospital
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

Inherent with intricate allocation of brain resource and attention shift, postural-suprapostural task is defined as postural control takes place while the other concurrent task is being performed. Recent studies have indicated that attentional focusing alters attention allocation in the brain as well as motor performance of a postural-suprapostural task. Also, most studies have demonstrated benefits of inducing an external focus relative to internal focus for motor performance. However, postural difficulty might be a critical factor for choosing an appropriate focusing strategy, and the strategy used in a particular difficulty level do not always generalize to other difficulty levels. Besides, despite a lot of studies have been done, current findings are confined to behavioral observations in young healthy adults for lacking direct neural evidence. With the uses of H-reflex, event-related potential and behavioral measures, the purpose of the 3-year research project is to investigate the differences in performance quality and intrinsic neural mechanisms of a postural-suprapostural task for older adults and patients with Parkinson's disease, by adopting external and internal strategies for suprapostural task under different posture difficulties. In the first year, the investigators will characterize suprapostural focusing effect on reciprocity of a postural-suprapostural task, with a special focus on modulation of motoneuron excitability in sitting and standing posture for healthy young and older adults using H-reflex technique. In the second year, the adaptive selection of suprapostural focusing strategy will be investigated for patients with Parkinson's disease by varying the standing surface (stable/unstable surface). In the third year, the investigators will investigate suprapostural focusing effect on brain resource allocation for patients with Parkinson's disease, in light of event-related potential and movement-related potential. The present project is expected to have significant contributions not only to gain a better insight to neural correlates of concurrent postural and motor suprapostural tasks with internal/external focusing strategy under different posture difficulty, but to optimize treatment strategy for older adults and patients with Parkinson's disease with balance or multi-tasking disturbances.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 30
• Est. completion date: September 2016
• Est. primary completion date: October 2014
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 20 Years and older

Eligibility

Inclusion criteria

• Independent standing balance on air pillow at least 20 sec

• No neurologic or orthopedic disorder

Exclusion criteria

• Had relative experience before

• Pregnant women

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Parkinson
• Parkinson Disease

Intervention

Behavioral:
• stable condition

• unstable condition

• attentional focus

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Taiwan	National Taiwan University Hospital	Taipei
Taiwan	School and Graduate Institute of Physical Therapy, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University	Taipei

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
National Taiwan University Hospital

Country where clinical trial is conducted

Taiwan, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	H-reflex analysis	The value of soleus H/Mmax ratio is measured as the motoneuron excitability	1 week
Secondary	EMG analysis	The root mean square value of right biceps EMG is measured as the muscle activity	1 week
Secondary	postural sway analysis	The root mean square value of center of pressure in anterior-posterior and medial-lateral directions are used as the postural performance	1 week