Measuring implicit sequence learning and dual task ability in mild to moderate Parkinson´s disease: A feasibility study

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 16; no. 5; p. e0251849
• Main Authors: Freidle, Malin, Johansson, Hanna, Lebedev, Alexander V., Ekman, Urban, Lövdén, Martin, Franzén, Erika
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: San Francisco Public Library of Science 2021; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Aging; Balance; Biology and Life Sciences; Brain; Brain mapping; Brain research; Data analysis; Data collection; Decision analysis; Design analysis; Division; Dopamine; Editing; Feasibility studies; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Funding; Gait; Geriatrics; Hospitals; Learning; Medical personnel; Medicin och hälsovetenskap; Medicine and Health Sciences; Methodology; Motor ability; Movement disorders; Nervous system; Neurobiology; Neurodegenerative diseases; Neurosciences; Occupational therapy; Parkinson's disease; Physical therapy; Psychology; Reaction time; Reaction time task; Research facilities; Reviews; Social Sciences; Statistical analysis; Statistics; Sweden
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0251849

We investigated the feasibility aspects of two choice reaction time tasks designed to assess implicit sequence learning and dual task ability in individuals with mild to moderate Parkinson’s disease in comparison to healthy individuals. Twelve individuals with mild to moderate Parkinson’s disease and 12 healthy individuals, all ≥ 60 years of age, were included. A serial reaction time task was used as a measure of implicit sequence learning and a similar task but with the addition of a simple counting task, was used as a measure of dual task ability. We have present thorough descriptive statistics of the data but we have refrained from any inferential statistics due to the small sample size. All participants understood the task instructions and the difficulty level of both tasks was deemed acceptable. There were indications of task fatigue that demand careful choices for how best to analyse the data from such tasks in future trials. Ceiling effects were present in several accuracy outcomes, but not in the reaction time outcomes. Overall, we found both tasks to be feasible to use in samples of individuals with mild to moderate Parkinson’s disease and healthy older individuals.