Cognitive Rehabilitation in Parkinson's Disease

We are testing a computer game-style rehabilitation program for people with Parkinson's disease (PD). People with PD often have difficulty with motor planning, such as initiating or starting movements. We believe that our program will improve performance on a movement initiation task as well as on activities of daily living, such as walking, preparing a meal or opening a medicine bottle. We will measure brain function using functional MRI before and after training to identify brain areas that are involved in improved performance. If effective, computer based training will be an inexpensive treatment for motor planning deficits in PD that is free from side effects and easy to administer to a large number of patients.