The Effect of Prorprioceptive Training on Upper Limb Function in Patients with Movement Disorders

Proprioceptive is essential for motor control and motor learning; however, proprioceptive training is not well developed and established as motor training. Previous studies have shown very inconsistent results regarding proprioceptive training because of the following reasons. First, the definition of proprioceptive training is unclear and inconsistent. Second, the protocols and dose varied across studies. Third, outcome measures were different across studies and they are hard to compare. Finally, they did not measure proprioceptive sensitivity due to technical limitations. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to examine systematically the effect of proprioceptive training on upper limb function in patients with movement disorders. Specifically, we want to answer the following two questions: 1) Is there any difference in proprioceptive sensitivity before and after training among groups? 2) Is there any difference in functional task before and after training among groups? This is a placebo controlled study. We plan to recruit 45 patients with Parkinson’s disease, 45 patients with dystonia and 45 healthy old adults to participate this study. After initial evaluation, participants will be randomly assigned to weighted wrist cuff group, whole body vibration group or placebo group. After intervention, posttest which includes proprioceptive sensitivity measurement and functional tasks will be performed. Two independent variables are group (PD vs. control) and treatment (whole body vibration vs. weighted wrist cuff vs. placebo). Repeated measured statistical analysis will be performed to compare the effect among groups.

Project ID:PC10507-0266
External Project ID:MOST105-2314-B182-011