Can Tau-guided auditory cues help control of movement in Parkinson's Disease patients ?
View/ Open
Curran dissertation.pdf (377.5Kb)
Date
2006Item status
Restricted AccessAuthor
Curran, Isabel
Metadata
Abstract
Based on the theory that the movement disturbances seen in Parkinson’s disease are caused by
the lack of an intrinsic tau-guide (Lee et al, 1999), and drawing from knowledge of the role of
the basal ganglia and its pathophysiology in Parkinson’s disease, an experiment was designed
to investigate the use of auditory cues in alleviating the symptoms of the disease.
Four Parkinson’s disease patients carried out 3 simple writing tasks under an un-cued and an
externally cued condition. The sound cue took the form of a ‘whoop’ designed to imitate the
properties of the intrinsic tau-guide. Coordinates of their hand-movements while performing
the tasks were recorded and then analysed to determine whether subjects were utilising the
external cue to improve their movement control. The results showed that the sound condition
did lead to more normal movement in Parkinson’s disease and lends support to the theory that
they are missing an internal tau-guide, and to the evidence that the basal ganglia’s role is the
internal cueing of well learned, sequential movements.