Suprapostural Attention Focus and Postural Difficulty on H-reflex and Brain Activity: Aging and Parkinson's Disease

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Parkinson
• Interventions: Behavioral: unstable condition; Behavioral: stable condition; Behavioral: attentional focus

• Registration Number: NCT02539446
• Lead Sponsor: National Taiwan University Hospital

Brief Summary

Inherent with intricate allocation of brain resource and attention shift, postural-suprapostural task is defined as postural control takes place while the other concurrent task is being performed. Recent studies have indicated that attentional focusing alters attention allocation in the brain as well as motor performance of a postural-suprapostural task. Also, most studies have demonstrated benefits of inducing an external focus relative to internal focus for motor performance. However, postural difficulty might be a critical factor for choosing an appropriate focusing strategy, and the strategy used in a particular difficulty level do not always generalize to other difficulty levels. Besides, despite a lot of studies have been done, current findings are confined to behavioral observations in young healthy adults for lacking direct neural evidence. With the uses of H-reflex, event-related potential and behavioral measures, the purpose of the 3-year research project is to investigate the differences in performance quality and intrinsic neural mechanisms of a postural-suprapostural task for older adults and patients with Parkinson's disease, by adopting external and internal strategies for suprapostural task under different posture difficulties. In the first year, the investigators will characterize suprapostural focusing effect on reciprocity of a postural-suprapostural task, with a special focus on modulation of motoneuron excitability in sitting and standing posture for healthy young and older adults using H-reflex technique. In the second year, the adaptive selection of suprapostural focusing strategy will be investigated for patients with Parkinson's disease by varying the standing surface (stable/unstable surface). In the third year, the investigators will investigate suprapostural focusing effect on brain resource allocation for patients with Parkinson's disease, in light of event-related potential and movement-related potential. The present project is expected to have significant contributions not only to gain a better insight to neural correlates of concurrent postural and motor suprapostural tasks with internal/external focusing strategy under different posture difficulty, but to optimize treatment strategy for older adults and patients with Parkinson's disease with balance or multi-tasking disturbances.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2014-10
• Primary Completion: 2014-10
• Study First Submitted: 2014-10-21
• Study First Submitted QC: 2015-08-31
• Study First Posted: 2015-09-03
• Study Completion: 2016-09
• Status Verified: 2016-10
• Last Update Submitted: 2019-12-12
• Last Update Posted: 2019-12-16

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 30

Inclusion Criteria

Not provided

Exclusion Criteria

Not provided

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: CROSSOVER

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
unstable condition & attentional focus	attentional focus	for measure the relationships between task difficulty and attentional focus on supraposture
unstable condition & attentional focus	unstable condition	for measure the relationships between task difficulty and attentional focus on supraposture
stable condition & attentional focus	stable condition	for measure the relationships between task difficulty and attentional focus on supraposture
stable condition & attentional focus	attentional focus	for measure the relationships between task difficulty and attentional focus on supraposture

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
H-reflex analysis	1 week	The value of soleus H/Mmax ratio is measured as the motoneuron excitability

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
EMG analysis	1 week	The root mean square value of right biceps EMG is measured as the muscle activity
postural sway analysis	1 week	The root mean square value of center of pressure in anterior-posterior and medial-lateral directions are used as the postural performance

Trial Locations

Locations (2)

School and Graduate Institute of Physical Therapy, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University; 🇨🇳 Taipei, Taiwan

National Taiwan University Hospital; 🇨🇳 Taipei, Taiwan