Action Observation Plus Sonification Therapeutic Protocol

NCT03249155 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 24

Last updated 2017-08-15

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

The target of this clinical trial is Freezing of Gait symptom (FoG), and associated falls. The project is aimed to evaluate the effects of an innovative experimental protocol to treat Parkinson (PD) Patients with FoG. This new physiotherapy protocol is based on the recovery of the correct mental representation of the movement, through Action Observation. A method that can facilitate the process of re-learning correct motor strategies, and at the same time avoid the phenomena of external cues dependency. Our version of the Action observation method uses video-clips of gait exercises. In these video-clips the audio part was obtained with the sonification of the kinematics of the body movements. We postulate that action observation, through the activation of the mirror system, is able to reactivate stored motor programs concerning walking ability, which can be used to facilitate recovery of defective motor control and overcome freezing of gait. Moreover, given that patients with PD and FoG may have major shortages of attention resources, a multisensory approach (audio-visual) would help to further reduce the attention load, facilitating learning processes. Therefore half of participants received an experimental protocol with Action Observation plus signification while the other half received a traditional protocol combining visual and auditory cues.

Conditions

  • Parkinson Disease

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

AO - plus sonification

patients re-learn 8 motor gestures watching video-clips showing an actor performing the same gestures, and then tried to repeat the gesture. Each video-clip is composed by images and sounds of the gestures. The sound of gestures is obtained with the sonification technique, by transforming kinematic data (velocity) recorded during the execution of gesture, into pitch variations (for an example see: bit.ly/sonif\_example)

BEHAVIORAL

CUE - visual and auditory

patients re-learned 8 motor gestures practicing a traditional protocol combining visual and auditory cues

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • University of Trieste

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Paolo Bernardis, PhD · University of Trieste

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
TRIPLE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2015-03-02
Primary Completion
2017-07-03
Completion
2017-07-03

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT03249155 on ClinicalTrials.gov