Exploration of Force in Movement and Perception in Parkinson’s Disease
Abstract
Parkinson’s Disease (PD) causes force control deficits in upper and lower limbs. About 50% of patients with advanced PD develop freezing of gait (FOG). There is limited research comparing force control in PD with and without FOG, especially in upper limbs. It has been suggested that motor control deficits in PD are related to deficits in kinesthesia, but there is conflicting evidence whether levodopa alleviates kinesthetic deficits. In this thesis, force control was explored using an upper-and-lower-limb haptics-enabled robot in a reaching task, and kinesthesia was investigated using a haptic device in a force discrimination task while participants were on and off levodopa. Similar significant force control deficits were found in upper and lower limbs in patients with FOG compared to those without FOG. However, no significant kinesthetic deficits were found in patients with PD, independent of medication state, suggesting force control deficits may not be attributable to kinesthetic deficits.