Music Attenuates Excessive Visual Guidance of Skilled Reaching in Advanced but Not Mild Parkinson's Disease

Abstract

Parkinson's disease (PD) results in movement and sensory impairments that can be reduced by familiar music. At present, it is unclear whether the beneficial effects of music are limited to lessening the bradykinesia of whole body movement or whether beneficial effects also extend to skilled movements of PD subjects. This question was addressed in the present study in which control and PD subjects were given a skilled reaching task that was performed with and without accompanying preferred musical pieces. Eye movements and limb use were monitored with biomechanical measures and limb movements were additionally assessed using a previously described movement element scoring system. Preferred musical pieces did not lessen limb and hand movement impairments as assessed with either the biomechanical measures or movement element scoring. Nevertheless, the PD patients with more severe motor symptoms as assessed by Hoehn and Yahr (HY) scores displayed enhanced visual engagement of the target and this impairment was reduced during trials performed in association with accompanying preferred musical pieces. The results are discussed in relation to the idea that preferred musical pieces, although not generally beneficial in lessening skilled reaching impairments, may normalize the balance between visual and proprioceptive guidance of skilled reaching.

Analysis of Skilled Forelimb Movement in Rats: The Single Pellet Reaching Test and Staircase Test

“…The skilled reaching task, in which a subject reaches for a small food item, grasps the food item with the fingers, and then transports the food item to the mouth for eating (Whishaw et al, ), can be used experimentally to describe and quantify hand use deficits. This task can be used to examine forelimb and postural impairments in human conditions such as Parkinson's disease (Sacrey et al, ), Huntington's disease (Klein et al, ), and stroke (Foroud and Whishaw, ), and can also be used to model Parkinson's disease (Whishaw et al, ; Montoya et al, ; Whishaw and Pellis, ; Miklyaeva et al, ), Huntington's disease (Fricker‐Gates et al, ; Whishaw et al, ), and stroke (Gharbawie et al, ; Alaverdashvili and Whishaw, ) in rodents (for further references, see the staircase skilled reaching database at http://www.cf.ac.uk/biosi/staffinfo/dunnett/stairref.html).…”

“…Current Protocols in Neuroscience Supplement 58 task can be used to examine forelimb and postural impairments in human conditions such as Parkinson's disease (Sacrey et al, 2009b), Huntington's disease (Klein et al, 2011), and stroke (Foroud and Whishaw, 2006), and can also be used to model Parkinson's disease (Whishaw et al, 1986;Montoya et al, 1990;Whishaw and Pellis, 1990;Miklyaeva et al, 1994), Huntington's disease (Fricker-Gates et al, 2003;Whishaw et al, 2007), and stroke (Gharbawie et al, 2008;Alaverdashvili and Whishaw, 2010) in rodents (for further references, see the staircase skilled reaching database at http: //www. cf.ac.uk/biosi/staffinfo/dunnett/stairpubdate.…”

The measurement of visual sampling during real-world activity in Parkinson's disease and healthy controls: A structured literature review

“…upper-limb tasks and turns-in-place) these related outcomes were oppositely impaired (i.e. reduced saccade velocity and amplitude and increased frequency) (Anastasopoulos et al, 2011, Desmurget et al, 2004, Lohnes and Earhart, 2011, Sacrey et al, 2009, Sacrey et al, 2011, Ventre-Dominey et al, 2002, Ventre-Dominey et al, 2001, illustrating a selective effect of impairment.…”

“…FOG), cognitive and visual deficits was reported in four of the reviewed studies (Galna et al, 2012, Lee et al, 2012, Uc et al, 2006, Lohnes and Earhart, 2011, however the majority did not report or control for cognition or basic visual function (visual acuity and contrast sensitivity). Many studies either excluded or did not assess cognition (Desmurget et al, 2004, Lohnes and Earhart, 2011, Marx et al, 2012, Sacrey et al, 2009, Vitório et al, 2012, Vitorio et al, 2013. Two studies (Galna et al, 2012, Uc et al, 2006 assessed basic visual function and several studies did not include participants who wore glasses (Anastasopoulos et al, 2011, Sacrey et al, 2009, Sacrey et al, 2011.…”

Impact of Parkinson’s disease on proprioceptively based on-line movement control

“…Our findings also suggest that if vision or a visual memory of target location is available, it can be used to compensate for proprioceptive impairments. Other studies have also suggested that PD patients rely excessively on visual information to compensate for impairments in proprioceptive guidance (Zia et al 2000;Seiss et al 2003;Sacrey et al 2009). …”