Motor-cognitive Dual-task in Healthy Older Adults and Early Parkinson's Disease Patients

TwinBrain Parkinson's Disease Clinical Trial

Neuromuscular dysfunction is common in older adults and even more pronounced in neurodegenerative diseases. In Parkinson's disease (PD), a complex set of factors often prevents effective performance of activities of daily living that require intact and simultaneous performance of motor and cognitive tasks. In the current study we aim at employing the Mobile Brain/Body Imaging approach (MoBI) to gain further insides of neuromuscular biomarkers revealing the decrements of older adults with an early PD. The cross-sectional study will be evaluated through the multifactorial mixed-measure design.

Inclusion Criteria:

Inclusion criteria for the healthy older participants will be:

• no diagnosis of cognitive or movement disorder,
• score > 7 for the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB),
• living independently in the community,
• age range between 55 and 70 years,
• no color blindness.

Inclusion criteria for the early-stage PD patients:

• diagnosed according to the last MDS criteria (2015),
• duration of the disease less than 5 years,
• positive DATSCAN,
• diagnosed akinetic-rigid or mixed phenotype,
• score of 1 or maximally 2 on the Hoehn and Yahr scale (Hoehn & Yahr, 1967),
• MoCA score ≥ 24 points,
• score > 7 for the SPPB,
• age range between 50 and 75 years,
• no color blindness
• living independently in the community.

Exclusion Criteria:

• advanced stages of PD (Hoehn and Yahr score > 2)
• any acute or chronic diseases, especially of the peripheral and central nervous system, heart failure, respiratory failure, severe osteoarthritis, and major psychiatric illness such as depression
• MoCA score < 24 points,
• severe disabling tremor,
• recurrent falls,
• impaired vision that is not corrected with e.g., glasses,
• low SPPB score