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The relationship between abnormalities of saccadic and manual response times in Parkinson's disease

Antoniades, Chrystalina A ; Xu, Zheyu ; Carpenter, R H S and Barker, Roger A LU (2013) In Journal of Parkinson's Disease 3(4). p.63-557
Abstract

BACKGROUND: Clinicians normally use subjective rating scales to estimate the impairment of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). More objective and quantitative methods of assessment would greatly aid our understanding of the disease. One promising approach is to measure reaction time: the large amount of data recorded in a short period provides precise, reproducible evaluation of the underlying neural decision processes. Manual evoked reaction times and repetitive tapping speed are often used, but differences of experimental design and analysis tend to obscure their interpretation. Saccadic latency, in many ways a simpler and more standardised task, is also normally affected in PD, but its relation to the kind of movement impairment... (More)

BACKGROUND: Clinicians normally use subjective rating scales to estimate the impairment of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). More objective and quantitative methods of assessment would greatly aid our understanding of the disease. One promising approach is to measure reaction time: the large amount of data recorded in a short period provides precise, reproducible evaluation of the underlying neural decision processes. Manual evoked reaction times and repetitive tapping speed are often used, but differences of experimental design and analysis tend to obscure their interpretation. Saccadic latency, in many ways a simpler and more standardised task, is also normally affected in PD, but its relation to the kind of movement impairment that affects patients' quality of life is less obvious. OBJESTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate these tasks in detail and also see whether their use in combination could provide a better measure than each in isolation.

METHODS: We compared three reaction time tasks: saccadometry, and evoked and spontaneous tapping, using protocols as similar as possible, correlating the measurements within a group of PD patients and of age-matched controls.

RESULTS: Surprisingly, manual and saccadic performance is uncorrelated in the normal population; but both are similarly affected by PD. The differences between groups are strengthened when the three measures are combined.

CONCLUSIONS: Saccadic latency can be regarded as an appropriate surrogate for more general kinds of motor impairment. The combination of saccadic and manual parameters enhances their potential use in quantifying disease status and evaluating treatments.

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author
; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
keywords
Aged, Case-Control Studies, Evoked Potentials, Motor, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Parkinson Disease, Reaction Time, Saccades, Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
in
Journal of Parkinson's Disease
volume
3
issue
4
pages
7 pages
publisher
IOS Press
external identifiers
  • scopus:84898751944
  • pmid:24113556
ISSN
1877-718X
DOI
10.3233/JPD-120126
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
40ad46c6-77bc-4146-9396-18728afe3372
date added to LUP
2016-11-24 15:19:05
date last changed
2024-07-26 22:56:09
@article{40ad46c6-77bc-4146-9396-18728afe3372,
  abstract     = {{<p>BACKGROUND: Clinicians normally use subjective rating scales to estimate the impairment of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). More objective and quantitative methods of assessment would greatly aid our understanding of the disease. One promising approach is to measure reaction time: the large amount of data recorded in a short period provides precise, reproducible evaluation of the underlying neural decision processes. Manual evoked reaction times and repetitive tapping speed are often used, but differences of experimental design and analysis tend to obscure their interpretation. Saccadic latency, in many ways a simpler and more standardised task, is also normally affected in PD, but its relation to the kind of movement impairment that affects patients' quality of life is less obvious. OBJESTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate these tasks in detail and also see whether their use in combination could provide a better measure than each in isolation.</p><p>METHODS: We compared three reaction time tasks: saccadometry, and evoked and spontaneous tapping, using protocols as similar as possible, correlating the measurements within a group of PD patients and of age-matched controls.</p><p>RESULTS: Surprisingly, manual and saccadic performance is uncorrelated in the normal population; but both are similarly affected by PD. The differences between groups are strengthened when the three measures are combined.</p><p>CONCLUSIONS: Saccadic latency can be regarded as an appropriate surrogate for more general kinds of motor impairment. The combination of saccadic and manual parameters enhances their potential use in quantifying disease status and evaluating treatments.</p>}},
  author       = {{Antoniades, Chrystalina A and Xu, Zheyu and Carpenter, R H S and Barker, Roger A}},
  issn         = {{1877-718X}},
  keywords     = {{Aged; Case-Control Studies; Evoked Potentials, Motor; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Parkinson Disease; Reaction Time; Saccades; Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{4}},
  pages        = {{63--557}},
  publisher    = {{IOS Press}},
  series       = {{Journal of Parkinson's Disease}},
  title        = {{The relationship between abnormalities of saccadic and manual response times in Parkinson's disease}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/JPD-120126}},
  doi          = {{10.3233/JPD-120126}},
  volume       = {{3}},
  year         = {{2013}},
}