Effects of Motor Imagery and Action Observation on Upper Limb Motor Chances and Cognitive Chances in Parkinson's Disease

Summary

Parkinson's disease is degenerative, progressive, and chronic. It is considered potentially disabling, in view of the motor alterations, such as bradykinesia, rigidity, and tremor in the upper limbs, and non-motor alterations, such as cognitive ones involving attention, concentration and memory difficulties. Thus, neurorehabilitation modalities, such as motor imagery and action observation, have been used. The aim of this research is to investigate the effects of motor imagery and action observation on upper limb motor and cognitive changes in Parkinson's disease. This is a randomized controlled trial type study. The population of the study involves people with Parkinson's disease in stages 1-3 on the Hoehn and Yahr scale, aged 20 to 80 years, who must be on stable medication, have no cognitive impairment with risk of dementia, be able to imagine motor activities and have upper limb motor impairment. The study groups will be: a) motor imagery, observation of action and motor execution; b) motor imagery and motor execution; c) observation of action and motor execution; d) motor imagery and motor execution and exoskeleton; e) observation of action and motor execution and exoskeleton. The interventions of all groups will be an intensive approach of 10 continuous sessions, with a two-day break in the middle of the intervention, totaling two weeks, with each session lasting 40 minutes a day. The data collection steps for the study will involve the pre-test, the interventions, the immediate post-test, and the test after a four-week period without intervention. The instruments that will be used for the evaluations will be: a) part of the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS-III); b) Test D'évaluation Des Membres Supérieurs Des Personnes Âgées (TEMPA); c) 9-Hole Peg Test to assess upper extremity function; d) Parkinson's Disease Cognitive Assessment Scale; e) Canadian Occupational Performance Measure to identify performance and satisfaction in performing activities in the areas of self-care, productivity, and leisure.

Conditions

• Parkinson Disease

Interventions

OTHER

Motor Imagery

Motor imagery (MI) is a cognitive process that involves the ability to perform an action mentally, without the need to perform the movement itself. The perspective that the person uses to imagine can be: internal perspective (first person - imagines himself/herself), which relates to the person's view of the content of the images or to his/her kinesthetic sensation - the person imagines the movement being performed, as if feeling the movement of the action; or external perspective (third person - imagines another person), which relates to the visual imagination of scenes outside the person.

OTHER

Action Observation

Action observation consists of watching another person acting, or doing a motor task, on video or in real-time.

OTHER

Exoskeletons

The term Brain-Machine Interface (BMI) refers to systems that capture brain activity signals, translating them into computer commands to control external devices, with the robotic exoskeletons. The electrodes are positioned on the skull cap.

OTHER

Execution of the Action

In the sitting or standing position, depending on the action to be performed, the participant must execute the same action imagined or observed previously.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Federal University of Health Science of Porto Alegre

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

FACTORIAL

Eligibility

Min Age

20 Years

Max Age

80 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2023-02-01

Primary Completion

2024-11-30

Completion

2024-11-30

Countries

• Brazil

Study Locations