Mental Representation Techniques for the Treatment of Parkinson´s Disease-related Pain

Summary

Pain is an under-reported but prevalent symptom in Parkinson´s Disease (PD), impacting patients' quality of life. Both pain and PD conditions cause cortical excitability reduction, but mental representations techniques are thought to be able to counteract it, resulting also effective in chronic pain conditions. The investigators of the present project aim to evaluate the efficacy of a novel mental representation protocol in the management of pain in PD patients during the ON state. The investigators hypothesize that Action Observation (AO) and Motor Imagery (MI) training through a Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) using Virtual Reality (AO+MI-BCI) can improve clinical pain and its central processing features.

Conditions

• Parkinson Disease
• Pain

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Action Observation+Motor Imagery through BCI

Patients will undergo the treatment through the NeuRow platform. NeuRow is a gamified Brain-Computer Interface training paradigm in Virtual Reality (or neurogame) that allows patients to perform the same actions as they would do in real-life by imaging the movement. In NeuRow, patients will see a boat and two high fidelity virtual arms gripping two oars in the first-person view. Patients will have to imagine the movement of each corresponding hand to rotate each oar and progress, observing the movement imagined on screen. The goal of the task is to collect as many flags as possible in a fixed amount of time. In order to improve adherence, the number of flags collected will be recorded in each session. It will be able to adapt the boat speed, turn speed, and cut-off angle, to help patients not to deviate in excess from the target. The treatment itself will be performed for 20 minutes each session, divided into 4 series of 5 minutes to prevent fatigue.

BEHAVIORAL

Action Observation through non-related with movement illustrations

The same configuration will be applied to simulate a BCI task, but playing a video about graphic illustrations, people's faces, and landscapes, never related to human movement. They will address interesting and changing topics to avoid patient's boredom. The control session will last 20 minutes, also divided into 4 series of 5 minutes and the therapist will give the instructions of observing and relax.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Hospital Beata María Ana

  collaborator OTHER

• Universidad Rey Juan Carlos

  collaborator OTHER

• Universidad Francisco de Vitoria

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Juan Pablo Romero Muñoz, MD PhD · Universidad Francisco de Vitoria, Facultad de Ciencias Experimentales

• Josue Fernández Carnero, PT PhD · Universidad Rey Juan Carlos

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

TRIPLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2021-05-03

Primary Completion

2021-10-31

Completion

2021-12-31

Countries

• Spain

Study Locations