US State University conducts a clinical trial of Virtual Cycling Environments for Persons With Parkinson Disease

Photo by Simon Connellan

The Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey is enrolling patients into the clinical trial investigating Virtual Cycling Environments for Persons With Parkinson Disease.

This study asks three questions about Persons with Parkinson Disease that use a bicycle for exercise:

1. Does the use of virtual reality increase the intensity and and enjoyment of the experience compared to bicycling without virtual reality?
2. Does the way in which the bicycling (interval compared to continous) is performed affect the experience?
3. How does the way the virtual reality is delivered (with goggles or projected on a screen) affect the experience?

Participants attend two sessions. They complete movement assessments and questionnaires about physical activity. During the first session they bicycle in a semi-immersive (projected on a screen) and an immersive (with googles) virtual environment. After each bout they completed a questionnaire about the experience. In the second session they bicycle four times with and without a virtual environment using both a continous and interval mode. Their oxygen consumption is measured during cycling. They complete questionnaires after each exercise bout.

The trial is designed to enroll male and female 45 to 75 years and is being conducted in the School of Health Professions, Newark, New Jersey, United States; New York Institute of Technology, Old Westbury, New York, United States.

The study start date is February 8, 2021.

National Institute on Aging (NIA) and New York Institute of Technology are the collaborators in this study.

Among the excluding conditions appear:

• Have a recent history of severe heart disease, severe lung disease, uncontrolled diabetes, traumatic brain injury or neurological disorder other than Parkinson Disease.
• Are unable to follow directions or sign a consent form.
• Do not have adequate vision or hearing ability to see or hear a television.
• Have unstable medical condition or musculoskeletal disorder such as severe arthritis, recent knee surgery, hip surgery, or any other condition that the investigators determine would impair the ability to ride the bicycle.
• Have any other medical condition that prevents bicycling.
• Have moderate depression.

Rutgers University (formally, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and commonly called RU) is a public land-grant research university based in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and today it is the eighth-oldest college in the United States, the second-oldest in New Jersey (after Princeton University), and one of the nine U.S. colonial colleges that were chartered before the American War of Independence. In 1825, Queen's College was renamed Rutgers College in honor of Colonel Henry Rutgers, whose substantial gift to the school had stabilized its finances during a period of uncertainty. For most of its existence, Rutgers was a private liberal arts college but it has evolved into a coeducational public research university after being designated The State University of New Jersey by the New Jersey Legislature via laws enacted in 1945 and 1956.
Rutgers is home to the Rutgers University Center for Cognitive Science, also known as RUCCS. This research center hosts researchers in psychology, linguistics, computer science, philosophy, electrical engineering, and anthropology.

This page provides a more detailed overview of this clinical trial: https://ichgcp.net/clinical-trials-registry/NCT04804202