Reinforcement and error feedback effects on locomotion of individuals with Parkinson disease

• Grant number: 24/04852-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: August 14, 2024
• End date: December 23, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Physical Education
• Principal Investigator: José Angelo Barela
• Grantee: José Angelo Barela
• Host Investigator: John Jeka
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of Delaware (UD), United States

Abstract

The purpose of this project is to examine the impact of reinforcement and error feedback on locomotion of individuals with Parkinson disease (PD). Adults with and without PD will walk on a instrumented treadmill, imersed in a virtual reality enrionment. Body segment displacements will be monitored and captured, real time, during the walking. After a period of adaptation, step length and width will be obtained during self-paced walking (baseline). Following, reinforcment and error feedback will be presented in the virtual reality scenario regarding step length and step width. Feedback conditions will be balanced throughout the experimental procedures. Besides the tradicional descriptive walking step measures, autocorrelation lag-1 will be computed for step length and step width throughout each of the experimental conditions (baseline, reinforcement and error feedback). Higher values of lag -1 autocorrelation will indicate higher level of step length and step consistency (previous step placement related to the next step placement). The expected results are that individulas with PD use better error feedback than reinforcement because this latter is related to basal ganglia which is compromised in individual with PD. Diferently, no difference is expected between feedback conditions for individuals with no PD. These results will contribute towards understanding motor control issues related to affected cortical structures in individuals with PD which are important in design protocols intervention for these individuals.