Motor imagery and external cueing as strategies to optimise motor learning in patients with Parkinson's disease with and without freezing of gait.

Parkinsons disease (PD) is a frequently occurring chronic neurological disorder, which leads to severe motor and cognitive complications. Patients with PD show specific difficulties in motor learning, especially with regard to the consolidation of learning. In the current project, we investigate two strategies to optimise motor learning in these patients. The first one is based on external cueing, which is a compensatory strategy aimed at bypassing the patients deficient internal motor generation system through external input. The second strategy, motor imagery, is an attentional strategy aimed at building up a correct internal reference frame of the movement. We specifically aim to improve the patients underscaling of amplitude and rhythmic dyscontrol. These problems are even more pronounced in PD patients suffering from freezing of gait (FOG). Recent studies show that freezing is a generalized deficit of spatiotemporal control of repetitive movements, which manifests itself in both the lower and upper limbs. Furthermore, patients with freezing were shown to have distinct motor and cognitive profiles, and might as such, respond differently to rehabilitation strategies. The current project aims to detect the differences in the behavioural as well as the neural correlates of motor learning in PD patients with and without FOG.

Keywords:Freezing of gait, Motor learning, Motor imagery, External cueing, Parkinson's disease

Disciplines:Laboratory medicine, Palliative care and end-of-life care, Regenerative medicine, Other basic sciences, Other health sciences, Nursing, Other paramedical sciences, Other translational sciences, Other medical and health sciences