Effect of Mental Imagery Training on Brain Plasticity and Motor Function in Individuals With Parkinson's Disease

Yale University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Parkinson Disease

Treatments: Other: PD neurofeedback; Other: PD control

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT03623386

2000023535

1K23NS099478-01A1 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Details and patient eligibility

About

Effect of Mental Imagery Training on Brain Plasticity and Motor Function in Individuals with Parkinson's Disease: A functional MRI investigation.

Full description

This project will examine the effect of functional MRI-based neurofeedback on brain plasticity and motor performance in patients with Parkinson's Disease (PD).

Enrollment: 63 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 40+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Subjects with a diagnosis of idiopathic PD defined according to the UK Brain Bank diagnostic criteria and on a stable dopaminergic medication regimen will be included.

Exclusion criteria

• Age < 40 years
• Non-English speaking
• Pregnancy
• Breastfeeding
• Excessive alcohol consumption (> 7 drinks per week for women, > 14 drinks per week for men) or substance use
• History of a neurological disorder such as a brain tumor, stroke, central nervous system infection, multiple sclerosis, movement disorder (other than PD), or seizures
• History of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, attention deficit disorder, or obsessive compulsive disorder
• History of head injury with loss of consciousness
• Metallic surgical implants or traumatically implanted metallic foreign bodies
• Inability to lie flat for about an hour
• Discomfort being in small, enclosed spaces
• Dementia (Montreal Cognitive Assessment score < 21)
• Depression (Beck Depression Inventory-II score > 19)
• Hoehn & Yahr stage > 3 (i.e., able to stand and walk, but not fully independent)
• Focal neurological findings on exam that suggest cerebral pathology other than that associated with parkinsonism
• Motor symptoms that could potentially introduce too much motion artifact in the imaging data (e.g., MDS-UPDRS resting tremor score > 1 in limbs, head/chin tremor, or dyskinesia by history or exam).

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

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63 participants in 3 patient groups

Patients with PD neurofeedback training

Experimental group

Description:

Patients will receive neurofeedback training.

Treatment:

Other: PD neurofeedback

Patients with PD control

Active Comparator group

Description:

Patients will not receive neurofeedback training.

Treatment:

Other: PD control

Patients with PD

No Intervention group

Description:

Patients perform mental imagery (motor and visual aspects combined) in the MRI scanner without neurofeedback training.