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Parkinson’s Disease impairs motor imagery performance: An oscillatory investigation

Poster Session A - Saturday, March 7, 3:00 – 5:00 pm, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballrooms

Kathryn JM Lambert¹, Yvonne Y Chen², Ada WS Leung^3,5, Anthony Singhal^4,5; ¹Department of Kinesiology, University of Calgary, ²Department of Psychology, University of Nevada Las Vegas, ³Department of Occupational Therapy, University of Alberta, ⁴Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, ⁵Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute, University of Alberta

Parkinson’s Disease (PD) impairs the physical execution of action sequences. This impairment may stem in part from impaired processing of action representations, which are integral to the planning, monitoring, and execution of voluntary movement. Action representations can be investigated using motor imagery. Here we examine whether PD affects motor imagery of action sequences at the level of behaviour and neural oscillations. In particular, 20 people with PD and 20 controls completed a motor imagery task while electroencephalographic activity was recorded. Our data analysis focused on activity in the mu rhythm (8-14 Hz) as suppression in this rhythm is associated with sensorimotor network activation and the theta rhythm (3.5 - 7 Hz), which is proposed to support sensorimotor integration. The PD group was significantly less accurate when imagining action sequences as compared to controls. In the control group, successful trials were accompanied by more mu suppression. However, there were no significant differences between the two groups in overall mu activity. As compared to controls, the PD group exhibited significantly more theta oscillations over the temporo-occipital region, which may represent greater activity in the extrastriate body area. These results suggest that motor cortical regions do not support the accurate imagination of action sequences to the same extent in people with PD as compared to healthy adults. Disease-related changes to the sensorimotor network may subsequently lead people with PD to recruit additional visual regions when imagining action sequences.

Topic Area: PERCEPTION & ACTION: Motor control