Oculomotor; Disorder, Parkinson Disease
Conditions
Keywords
Parkinson Disease, Oculomotor deficit, Oculomotor training, Dynamic vision
Brief summary
Parkinson's disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disorder which is characterized by both motor and non-motor symptoms and usually affects people aged 50 years or above. Many studies showed eye movement deficits and visual changes in patients with PD. Previous studies have also indicated that clinical eye movement training could enhance the functional performance of patients with various eye movement problems resulting from ocular and neurodegenerative diseases. In this study, we will investigate the effectiveness of eye movement training on dynamic vision and functional performance in PD patients with oculomotor deficits.
Interventions
OTHERControl Group
Leisure activities
OTHEROculomotor Training Group
Eye movement training
Sponsors
University of California, Berkeley
Deakin University
Chinese University of Hong Kong
Hospital Authority, Hong Kong
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
OTHER
Masking
DOUBLE (Subject, Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
40 Years to 70 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Parkinson's Disease diagnosed by a neurologist or geriatrician with the range of Stage 1 to 4 (Hoehn and Yahr Classification) * Able to speak and comprehend Cantonese dialect * Able to travel independently
Exclusion criteria
* Any congenital eye problem (e.g. congenital strabismus or amblyopia in either eye) or any manifest eye diseases (e.g. macular degeneration, glaucoma, etc) * Severe medical problems (e.g. stroke) * Cognitive impairment (e.g. dementia) * Presence of any psychiatric or neurological diseases (apart from Parkinson's disease) or receiving of any psychoactive pharmacological treatment * Receiving any medication that is known to affect eye movement and cognitive function * Previous formal vision rehabilitation or oculomotor intervention
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Smooth Vergence eye movements | Change from baseline at week 4 and change from baseline at week 12 | Smooth vergence eye movement is measured using a head-mounted eye tracking while fixating at an approaching target moving at different speeds |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Oculomotor characteristics | Change from baseline at week 4 and change from baseline at week 12 | With the use of eye tracking device, eye movement behavior of participants can be measured and analysed while performing the following tasks. 1. Fixation task - Fixate at stationary target presented on a monitor 2. Saccade task - Follow and fixate at a random jumping target presented on a monitor 3. Pursuit task - Follow accurately and steadily on a smooth moving target presented on a monitor 4. Jump Vergence task - Follow and fixate a jumping target presented in the anterior-posterior plane (jumping from 'far to near' or 'near to far') |
| Sentence reading performance | Change from baseline at week 4 and change from baseline at week 12 | To evaluate the effectiveness of the interventions on sentence reading using MNREAD charts in Chinese. These charts developed in our laboratory are used to measure the effectiveness of sentence reading in terms of reading speed and critical print size. |
| Passage reading performance | Change from baseline at week 4 and change from baseline at week 12 | To evaluate the effectiveness of the interventions on passage reading using International Reading speed Test (IReST). IReST is used to evaluate the effectiveness of passage reading performance by measuring the reading speed. |
Countries
Hong Kong
Outcome results
None listed