Measurement of Smoothness of Reach in Patients with Parkinson's Disease
Abstract
The primary objective in this study was to explore the smoothness of reach in patients with Parkinson’s disease. Parkinson’s disease is known to affect movement and we wanted to explore how the disease potentially affects reach. This is significant because a decrease in the ability to reach also decreases the quality of life in the patient. We designed a reaching task using a virtual reality system. Two Parkinson’s patients performed the task before and after deep brain stimulation along with a healthy subject. Our data suggests that healthy patients have a smoother reach than Parkinson’s patients. We also found data that suggested that deep brain stimulation improves the smoothness of reach in patients with Parkinson’s disease. Our sample sizes are small which does affect our accuracy. Our results show that patients with Parkinson’s disease do have a less smooth reaching movement compared to healthy patients. The results also show that stimulation manages to improve the reach.
Measurement of Smoothness of Reach in Patients with Parkinson's Disease
Founders Hall 142 A
The primary objective in this study was to explore the smoothness of reach in patients with Parkinson’s disease. Parkinson’s disease is known to affect movement and we wanted to explore how the disease potentially affects reach. This is significant because a decrease in the ability to reach also decreases the quality of life in the patient. We designed a reaching task using a virtual reality system. Two Parkinson’s patients performed the task before and after deep brain stimulation along with a healthy subject. Our data suggests that healthy patients have a smoother reach than Parkinson’s patients. We also found data that suggested that deep brain stimulation improves the smoothness of reach in patients with Parkinson’s disease. Our sample sizes are small which does affect our accuracy. Our results show that patients with Parkinson’s disease do have a less smooth reaching movement compared to healthy patients. The results also show that stimulation manages to improve the reach.
