Visuospatial and Affective Abilities in Parkinson Disease

Condition(s) studied

Investigational drug(s) / intervention(s)

Prismatic adaptation: Participants will fit with prismatic goggles that deviate their visual field by 13° either leftward or rightward. They will seat in front of a white horizontal board on which three target dots (5 mm diameter) were positioned at 0, -10 and +10° from their body midline at a distance of 57 cm from their eyes. They will perform a total of 150 verbally instructed pointing movements with their right index finger towards the right (+10°) and left (-10°) targets in a pseudorandom order.

Schirmer test: Tear film will be collected from the right and left eyes.

Study summary

The aim of the study is to investigate whether prismatic adaptation (PA) and virtual prismatic adaptation (VPA), a non-invasive neuromodulation technique, that involves the use of lenses that deviate the visual field, can modulate alexithyima and performance in visuospatial tasks in patients with Parkinson disease. Furthermore, brain activity during the prismatic adaptation and post-adaptation phases will be recorded using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and high-density electroencephalography (HD-EEG). Based on these premises, the present project aims to investigate the deficits of the affective, motor and visuospatial abilities in Parkinson's patients and the modulation of disorders through prismatic adaptation (PA) and virtual prism adaptation (VPA). Finally, we would like to evaluate production of the tear film and correlate their quantity with the severity of PD as it could be proposed as a new, non-invasive biomarker.

Eligibility

Primary outcome measure(s)

• Improve visuospatial skills; — 2 years
  Better performance in tests that evaluate visuospatial skills like line bisection test. The minimun value is 0 and the maximum is 3. Higher scores mean a worse outcome
• Modulate alexithymia; — 2 years
  improvement in tests evaluating alexithymia such as TAS-20. The TAS 20 has scores that have a minimum of 20 and a maximum of 100. Scores greater than or equal to 61indicate high levels of alexithymia
• Investigation of brain activity; — 2 years
  investigate the brain areas involved in the tasks with High Density Electroencephalography (EEG HD) and functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). The most active areas will be listed in a table

Trial sites (1)

More IRCCS Centro Neurolesi Bonino Pulejo trials in Italy

Other trials for the same condition