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How far can I reach? The perception of upper body action capabilities in Parkinson's disease.

ABSTRACT: Successful interaction within the environment is contingent upon one's ability to accurately perceive the extent over which they can successfully perform actions, known as action boundaries. Healthy young adults are accurate in estimating their action boundaries and can flexibly update them to accommodate stable changes in their action capabilities. However, there are conditions in which motor abilities are subject to variability over time such as in Parkinson's disease (PD). PD impairs the ability to perform actions and can lead to variability in perceptual-motor experience, but the effect on the perceptions of their action boundaries remains unknown. This study investigated the influence of altered perceptual-motor experience during PD, on the perceptions of action boundaries for reaching, grasping, and aperture passing. Thirty participants with mild-to-moderate idiopathic PD and 26 healthy older adults provided estimates of their reaching, grasping, and aperture-passing ability. Participants' estimates were compared with their actual capabilities. There was no evidence that individuals with PD's perceptions were less accurate than those of healthy controls. Furthermore, there was some evidence for more conservative estimates than seen in young healthy adults in reaching (both groups) and aperture passing (PD group). This suggests that the ability to judge action capabilities is preserved in mild to moderate PD.

SUBMITTER: Readman MR

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8260152 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:BackgroundIn addition to motor deficits, Parkinson's disease (PD) may cause perceptual impairments. The role of perceptual impairments in sensorimotor function is unclear, and has typically been studied in single-joint motions.Research questionWe hypothesized that perception of whole-body motion is impaired in PD and contributes to balance impairments. We tested (1) whether directional acuity to whole body perturbations during standing was worse in people with PD compared to neurotypical older adults (NOA), and (2) whether balance ability, as assessed by the MiniBESTest, was associated with poor directional acuity in either group.MethodsParticipants were exposed to pairs of support-surface translation perturbations in a two-alternative forced choice testing paradigm developed previously in a young healthy population. The first perturbation of each pair that was to be judged by participants was directly backward, and the second perturbation deviated from the left or right from the backward direction by 1°-44°. Participants reported whether the perturbations in each pair were in the "same" or "different" direction. Judgements from 24 to 67 perturbation pairs were used to calculate directional acuity thresholds corresponding to "just-noticeable differences" in perturbation direction. Linear mixed models determined associations between directional thresholds and clinical variables including MDS-UPDRS-III score, age, and MiniBESTest score.Results20 PD (64?±?7 y, 12 male, ?12?h since last intake of antiparkinsonian medications) and 12 NOA (64?±?8, 6 male) were assessed. Directional thresholds were higher (worse) among PD participants (17.6?±?5.9° vs. 12.8?±?3.3°, P?<?0.01). Linear mixed models further showed that higher thresholds were associated with MDS-UPDRS-III score (P?<?0.01), and were associated with poorer balance ability among PD participants (P?<?0.01), but not among NOA participants (P?=?0.40).SignificancePerception of whole-body motion is impaired in PD and may contribute to impaired balance and falls.

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How far can I reach? The perception of upper body action capabilities in Parkinson's disease.

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