1,721,146 research outputs found
Flexibility of action verbs processing in Parkinson’s disease
No full textObjective: This study aims to investigate action language processing abilities in Parkinson's disease (PD) compared to healthy controls (HCs), specifically examining whether the involvement of motor systems is influenced by task context. By focusing on implicit versus explicit task demands, the study evaluates how semantic processing differs in PD and whether these differences align with a flexible embodied cognition framework.Methods: The study analyzed the performance of participants on two tasks: an explicit task (semantic judgment task, SJ) and an implicit task (letter detection task, LD). PD outpatients (n = 31, mean age 64.58 years) referred to the Parkinson and Movement Disorders Unit of ICS Maugeri Hermitage were enrolled, along with a group of healthy controls (n = 31, mean age 64.19 years). Performance was measured through reaction times (RTs) and accuracy scores (Acc) during the processing of action verbs and abstract verbs.Results: PD patients exhibited slower RTs and lower accuracy when processing action verbs compared to abstract verbs, but only during the SJ task. Slower RTs in the SJ task were predicted by language and executive functioning (semantic fluency) and disease progression (Hoehn and Yahr stages) for both action and abstract verbs. In the LD task, slower RTs were predicted by executive functioning for action verbs and attention (measured by Trail Making Test Part B and Stroop task) for abstract verbs.Conclusions: The findings suggest a context-dependent involvement of the motor system in action language processing, supporting a flexible, embodied approach to conceptual semantic processing rather than an automatic one
A longitudinal study of cognitive dysfunction in patients affected by Parkinson’s disease with and without freezing of gait
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Prevalence of heterozygous mutations in Niemann-Pick type C genes in a cohort of progressive supranuclear palsy
No full textDevelopment of software tool for quantitative gait assessment in Parkinsonian patients with and without Mild Cognitive Impairment
No full textThe construct of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) is considered as a transition state between normal aging and dementia. Originally it has been conceptualized as the transitional state between normalcy and Alzheimer's disease (AD), more recently, it has been applied to patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) as pre-dementia state. The relationship between cognition and gait disturbances has received increasing attention and is well established. In order to perform a quantitative assessment of gait in PD patients with or without MCI, an operating software tool has been developed. Ittakes advantage of the potentialities of the software Qualisys Track Manager and of the Matlab and allows the quantitative evaluation of the cinematic parameters of the human gait. © 2010 International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering
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