Manual Interception of Moving Target in Persons with Parkinson's Disease after a Course of Dry Immersion Sessions

Abstract

This study assessed the effect of a course of ground-based microgravity modeled with seven 45-minute dry immersion (DI) sessions in individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) (n = 10) on the performance of the task of manual interception of moving target. The proportion of accurate target interceptions, delay and advance in interception, average time of delay and advance were assessed. It was found that, in contrast to the choice reaction time and discrimination reaction time tasks, the DI course exerted no effect on the interception accuracy (the percentage of accurate interceptions ranged from 48% before the DI course to 54% two weeks after it, p 0.05, Friedman test), the percentage of delays and leads and the mean time of delays and leads (p 0.05, Friedman test). A possible explanation for such result may be the better clinical condition of individuals with PD due to strict inclusion criteria in the study, insufficient complexity of the manual interception task of a moving target, and preserved reactivity to dynamic stimuli in people with PD.