Suprapostural Attention Focus and Postural Difficulty on H-reflex and Brain Activity: Aging and Parkinson's Disease

December 12, 2019 updated by: National Taiwan University Hospital

The Effects of Suprapostural Attention Focus and Postural Difficulty on H-reflex and Brain Activity: Aging and Parkinson's Disease

Inherent with intricate allocation of brain resource and attention shift, postural-suprapostural task is defined as postural control takes place while the other concurrent task is being performed. Recent studies have indicated that attentional focusing alters attention allocation in the brain as well as motor performance of a postural-suprapostural task. Also, most studies have demonstrated benefits of inducing an external focus relative to internal focus for motor performance. However, postural difficulty might be a critical factor for choosing an appropriate focusing strategy, and the strategy used in a particular difficulty level do not always generalize to other difficulty levels. Besides, despite a lot of studies have been done, current findings are confined to behavioral observations in young healthy adults for lacking direct neural evidence. With the uses of H-reflex, event-related potential and behavioral measures, the purpose of the 3-year research project is to investigate the differences in performance quality and intrinsic neural mechanisms of a postural-suprapostural task for older adults and patients with Parkinson's disease, by adopting external and internal strategies for suprapostural task under different posture difficulties. In the first year, the investigators will characterize suprapostural focusing effect on reciprocity of a postural-suprapostural task, with a special focus on modulation of motoneuron excitability in sitting and standing posture for healthy young and older adults using H-reflex technique. In the second year, the adaptive selection of suprapostural focusing strategy will be investigated for patients with Parkinson's disease by varying the standing surface (stable/unstable surface). In the third year, the investigators will investigate suprapostural focusing effect on brain resource allocation for patients with Parkinson's disease, in light of event-related potential and movement-related potential. The present project is expected to have significant contributions not only to gain a better insight to neural correlates of concurrent postural and motor suprapostural tasks with internal/external focusing strategy under different posture difficulty, but to optimize treatment strategy for older adults and patients with Parkinson's disease with balance or multi-tasking disturbances.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

30

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Taiwan
      • Taipei, Taiwan, 100
        • National Taiwan University Hospital
      • Taipei, Taiwan, 100
        • School and Graduate Institute of Physical Therapy, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

20 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion criteria

  • Independent standing balance on air pillow at least 20 sec
  • No neurologic or orthopedic disorder

Exclusion criteria

  • Had relative experience before
  • Pregnant women

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Other
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Crossover Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Other: stable condition & attentional focus
for measure the relationships between task difficulty and attentional focus on supraposture
Behavioral: stable condition
Behavioral: attentional focus
Other Names:
  • internal focus
  • external focus
Other: unstable condition & attentional focus
for measure the relationships between task difficulty and attentional focus on supraposture
Behavioral: attentional focus
Other Names:
  • internal focus
  • external focus
Behavioral: unstable condition

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
H-reflex analysis
Time Frame: 1 week
The value of soleus H/Mmax ratio is measured as the motoneuron excitability
1 week

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
EMG analysis
Time Frame: 1 week
The root mean square value of right biceps EMG is measured as the muscle activity
1 week
postural sway analysis
Time Frame: 1 week
The root mean square value of center of pressure in anterior-posterior and medial-lateral directions are used as the postural performance
1 week

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

National Taiwan University Hospital

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Cheng-Ya Huang, National Taiwan University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

October 1, 2014

Primary Completion (Actual)

October 1, 2014

Study Completion (Actual)

September 1, 2016

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

October 21, 2014

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 31, 2015

First Posted (Estimate)

September 3, 2015

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

December 16, 2019

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 12, 2019

Last Verified

October 1, 2016

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 201312077RINC

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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