Repetitive Practice Key to Tutor’s Success for Parkinson’s Patients

Dr.K. Felix etal of the Faculty of Health Sciences, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada discusses the fact that
motor learning has been found to occur in the rehabilitation of individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Through repetitive
structured practice of motor tasks, individuals show improved performance, confirming that motor learning has probably taken
place. Although a number of studies have been completed evaluating motor learning in people with PD, the sample sizes were
small and the improvements were variable. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to determine the ability of people with PD
to learn motor tasks. Studies which measured movement time in upper extremity reaching tasks and met the inclusion criteria
were included in the analysis. Results of the meta-analysis indicated that people with PD and neurologically healthy controls both
demonstrated motor learning, characterized by a decrease in movement time during upper extremity movements.Movement time
improvements were greater in the control group than in individuals with PD. These results support the findings that the practice
of upper extremity reaching tasks is beneficial in reducing movement time in persons with PD and has important implications for
rehabilitation.
Results from this pooling of data from various studies provide evidence that upper extremity movement time can be improved through the use of practice of reaching tasks
in persons with PD, albeit potentially to a lesser extent than is shown in individuals with no neurological problems.The collective interpretation of this meta-analysis
indicates that practice of relevant motor tasks targeted at maximizing acquisition and retention improved movement speed.
The recently developed Hand and ArmTutor improves fine motor, sensory and gognitive impairments through intensive active exercises with augmented feedback. They allow for repetitive training that is tailored to the patient’s performance.
The Tutor system consists of motivating and challenging games that allow the patient to practice isolated and/or interjoint coordination exercises. Controlled exercise practice will help to prevent the development of compensatory movement patterns. The dedicated software allows the therapist to fully customize the exercises to the patient’s movement ability. In addition the therapist can objectively and quantitatively evaluate and report on the treatment progress. The rehabilitation system optimizes the patient’s motor, sensory and cognitive performance and allows the patient to better perform everyday functional tasks to improve their quality of life. The Tutor system is FDA and CE certified. See www.HandTutor.com for more information.