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Influence of Autonomy on Motor Learning in People With Parkinson's Disease

Not Applicable
Not yet recruiting
Conditions
Parkinson Disease
Interventions
Behavioral: Autonomy supported learning
Behavioral: Practice with predetermined feedback
Registration Number
NCT05960331
Lead Sponsor
National Taiwan University Hospital
Brief Summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to explore the benefits of autonomy supported learning in patients with Parkinson's disease. The main questions to answer are:

* Whether autonomy supported learning can benefit motor learning in PD patients

* Whether autonomy supported learning can enhance intrinsic motivation and/ or information processing of PD patients in learning a new task.

* Whether autonomy supported learning can facilitate cortical excitability change after practicing a new task.

Participants will be recruited into two groups (Self-control group, SC; and yoked group, YK) to learn a finger-pressing trajectory matching task

* Participants in SC group will have choice over feedback schedule during trial practice

* Participants in YK group will receive feedback with no-choice during trial practice Researchers will compare the retention test performance to see if autonomy supported learning will lead to better learning effect.

Detailed Description

Autonomy is the sense of learner to actively participate in determining their own behaviour. The present study aims to investigate whether an autonomy supported practice (with self-controlled feedback) would benefit adults with Parkinson's disease (PD), along with increased intrinsic motivation, information processing and cortical excitability. Two groups of healthy adults and two groups of PD patients will be recruited to learn a finger-pressing trajectory matching task. Participants will be allocated in either a self-control group (choice over feedback schedule), or a yoked group (receive feedback with no-choice). Learning will be assessed on the second day and one week later, along with an error estimation of learners' own performance to represent their information processing ability. Cortical excitability and inhibition will be assessed via transcranial magnetic stimulation as indicators of cortical plasticity. Questionnaire regarding motivation will be assessed before and after practice trials. Study hypothesized that individual with PD would benefit from autonomy supported learning, with better performance, enhanced motivation and information processing, associates with change of cortical excitability

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status
NOT_YET_RECRUITING
Sex
All
Target Recruitment
72
Inclusion Criteria
  • age above 20-years-old
  • able to follow instructions to perform the tasks (Montreal Cognitive Assessment ≥ 24)
  • no surgery and injury in upper extremities in recent 6 months
Exclusion Criteria
  • other neurological disorders in addition to Parkinson's disease
  • Parkinson's disease dementia
  • symptom of severe tremor in upper extremities (score ≥ 3 in Question 15 to 18 of UPDRS-III)
  • deep brain stimulation or pacemaker implanted
  • medical history of seizure
  • a blood-relative with history of epilepsy
  • unstable medical conditions
  • pregnancy

Study & Design

Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Study Design
PARALLEL
Arm && Interventions
GroupInterventionDescription
Self-control groupAutonomy supported learningParticipants will be able to choose over feedback schedule when practicing finger-pressing trajectory matching task.
Yoked groupPractice with predetermined feedbackParticipants will receive feedback, which was determined by their counterpart in self-control group, with no-choice when practicing finger-pressing trajectory matching task.
Primary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Performance accuracyup to day 7

Overall performance accuracy relative to the target waveform was assessed using root mean square error (RMSE), which is the mean difference between the target waveform and the participant's movement trajectory calculated over their actual movement time.

Secondary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Intrinsic Motivation Inventoryday 1, day 2, day 7

A questionnaire with subscales of perceived competence and autonomy. Questions were either taken directly or modified from the IMI, regarding to the participants subjective motivation after completing their practice trials.

Error Estimationday 2, day 7

Participants will be instructed to estimate their error in RMSE after completing each trial in retention and transfer test. Error estimation is used to assess the cognitive processing of participants during the trials.

Cortical excitability changesBaseline, day 2, day 7

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) device (The Magstim Company Ltd, Whitland, UK) will be used to determine the neurophysiological changes of corticomotor excitability before and after the acquisition phase.

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

National Taiwan University Hospital

🇨🇳

Taipei City, Taiwan

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