Fan Wei, Li Jin, Wei Wei, Xiao Shao-Hua, Liao Zhen-Jun, Wang Shu-Mei, Fong Kenneth N K
Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
Department of Neurology, General Hospital of the Yangtze River Shipping, Wuhan Brain Hospital, Wuhan, Hubei Province, China.
Parkinsonism Relat Disord. 2022 Aug;101:27-30. doi: 10.1016/j.parkreldis.2022.06.020. Epub 2022 Jun 23.
Rhythmic auditory stimulation (RAS) is an effective technique extensively used to alleviate lower-limb bradykinesia in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). However, RAS effects on upper-limb bradykinesia have not been well studied. This study investigated immediate effects of RAS on upper-limb movements in PD patients and healthy people.
PD patients (n = 23) and age- and gender-matched healthy controls (n = 23) executed left-hand, right-hand, and both-hand movement tasks of the Purdue Pegboard Test when listening to the beats of RAS, including 100%, 110%, and 120% of the baseline tempo, which was fastest movement performance of each participant without the aid of RAS. Sequence of RAS and tasks was randomized for each participant.
PD patients had slower upper-limb movements than did health controls. An interaction was found between RAS and tasks. In both patients and controls and for all task conditions, 120%RAS induced higher scores than did 110% RAS, and the latter induced higher scores than did 100%RAS. In both patients and controls and for all RAS conditions, the right-hand condition induced higher scores than did the left-hand condition, and the latter induced higher scores than did the both-hand condition.
RAS was effective in regulating upper-limb movements in PD patients, which may be explained by rich neural connections between auditory and motor cortical areas in humans. Clinical practitioners should consider using RAS in clinical therapy. Future neuroimaging studies are needed to explore neural mechanisms of RAS in PD patients.
节奏性听觉刺激（RAS）是一种广泛用于缓解帕金森病（PD）患者下肢运动迟缓的有效技术。然而，RAS对上肢运动迟缓的影响尚未得到充分研究。本研究调查了RAS对PD患者和健康人上肢运动的即时影响。
23名PD患者和年龄及性别匹配的23名健康对照者在听RAS节拍时执行普渡钉板测试的左手、右手和双手运动任务，RAS节拍包括基线节奏的100%、110%和120%，基线节奏是每个参与者在没有RAS帮助下的最快运动表现。每个参与者的RAS和任务顺序是随机的。
PD患者的上肢运动比健康对照者慢。发现RAS与任务之间存在交互作用。在患者和对照者中以及在所有任务条件下，120%RAS诱导的得分高于110%RAS，后者诱导的得分高于100%RAS。在患者和对照者中以及在所有RAS条件下，右手条件诱导的得分高于左手条件，后者诱导的得分高于双手条件。
RAS对调节PD患者的上肢运动有效，这可能是由于人类听觉和运动皮层区域之间丰富的神经连接所致。临床医生应考虑在临床治疗中使用RAS。未来需要进行神经影像学研究以探索RAS在PD患者中的神经机制。
