Rhythm Psychophysics With Parkinson's Patients (RPPD)

June 9, 2026 updated by: McMaster University

The goal of this interventional study is to understand how the rhythmic abilities of individuals in the early stages of Parkinson's Disease (PD) are impacted by their levels of dopamine. The main questions it aims to answer are:

  • Does dopamine shelter the ability to generate and maintain a regular tapping rhythm in the presence of disrupting sensory information?
  • Does dopamine allow the adaptation of tapping speed in the presence of changing sensory information?
  • Is the engagement of the motor system useful to improve the detection of changes in the tempo of sensory information?

Participants will be asked to perform a battery of simple rhythmic tasks On and Off medication to evaluate the effect of dopamine on their rhythmic skills.

Study Overview

Status

Not yet recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

34

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 Contact

Study Contact Backup

Study Locations

  • Canada
    • Ontario
      • Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, L8S 4L8
        • Psychology Building
        • Contact:
        • Contact:

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

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Parkinson's Disease diagnostic
  • Stage 1 or 2 Hoenh-Yahr scale
  • Taking immediate-release Levodopa
  • MoCA score of 26 or above

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Dementia
  • Other neurodegenerative disease
  • History of substance abuse
  • History of hearing disorders
  • History of neuropsychiatric disease

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: Basic Science
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Medication state
Participants will have to attend two sessions scheduled approximately one week apart. During one session, participants will be tested while On medication (levodopa). During the other session, participants will be asked to withhold their medication for 12 hours prior to the experimental session. The order of the sessions will be randomized across participants.
Drug: Withholding Levodopa
Participants will have to withhold Levodopa medication 12 h before one of two experimental sessions.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Changes in mean inter-tap intervals following Levodopa withdrawal during rhythmic tapping tasks.
Time Frame: Between experimental sessions one and two, which will take place approximately one week apart.
Audio recordings from the tapping tasks will be processed to extract onset times corresponding to participant taps (milliseconds). These onset times will be used to compute inter-tap intervals (ITI) by subtracting the earlier onset time from the later one (milliseconds).
Between experimental sessions one and two, which will take place approximately one week apart.
Changes in constant error following Levodopa withdrawal during rhythmic tapping tasks.
Time Frame: Between experimental sessions one and two, which will take place approximately one week apart.
Audio recordings from the tapping tasks will be processed to extract the onset times of participant taps (milliseconds). These onset times will be used to compute the constant error (milliseconds) by subtracting the base interval (milliseconds) from the mean inter-tap interval (milliseconds).
Between experimental sessions one and two, which will take place approximately one week apart.
Changes in asynchronies following Levodopa withdrawal during rhythmic tapping tasks.
Time Frame: Between experimental sessions one and two, which will take place approximately one week apart.
Audio recordings from the tapping tasks will be processed to extract onset times corresponding to auditory cues and participant taps (both in milliseconds). These onset times will be used to compute asynchronies (milliseconds) between the auditory cues and the taps. The asynchronies will be calculated by subtracting the tap onset from the corresponding auditory cue onset.
Between experimental sessions one and two, which will take place approximately one week apart.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Impact of Levodopa withdrawal on motor symptoms severity scales.
Time Frame: Between experimental Sessions one and two, which will take place approximately one week apart.
Motor symptom severity will be assessed with Part III of the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS-III). Scores range from 0 to 132, with higher scores reflecting more severe motor symptoms.
Between experimental Sessions one and two, which will take place approximately one week apart.
Impact of Levodopa withdrawal on motor symptoms severity scales.
Time Frame: Between experimental sessions one and two, which will take place approximately one week apart.
Cognitive assessment will be performed using the Scales for Outcomes in Parkinson's Disease-Cognition (SCOPA-COG). Scores range from 0 to 43, with higher scores reflecting better cognitive function.
Between experimental sessions one and two, which will take place approximately one week apart.

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

McMaster 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 (Estimated)

September 1, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

September 30, 2027

Study Completion (Estimated)

October 31, 2027

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

June 1, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 9, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

June 15, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

June 15, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 9, 2026

Last Verified

May 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 19513
  • RGEC27/2025 (Other Grant/Funding Number: Human Frontiers Science Program)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

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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