Evaluation of a Computer Game Based Rehabilitation System for Assessment and Treatment of Balance and Gait Impairments in Individuals With Parkinson's Disease.
Condition: Parkinson Disease; Parkinson
MeSH terms: Parkinson Disease
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Examining the feasibility and acceptability of the computer game based rehabilitation system
      for improving balance, gait and executive function in individuals with PD. This will involve
      a pilot case series intervention study of individuals with PD will be conducted.
    

Detailed description: 
      This research study will involve a case series pilot study of individuals with PD.
      Conventional therapy programs for PD population target motor and cognitive deficits in
      isolation. Recently there has been a growing interest in the application of digital media in
      rehabilitation. Exergaming and the use of cognitive games have shown good results in patients
      with Traumatic brain injury, Cerebral palsy, stroke rehabilitation and geriatric population
      for mobility limitations and dementia.

      All the 30 participants from the previous objective will be requested to take part in our
      objective 2. Objective 2 research protocol will be an 8- week (twice per week) training
      program of DT balance and DT walking exercises.

      Each session will be 45 minutes long. A basic computer game based exercise program will be
      designed for each participant depending upon their functional status. Every Participant will
      receive orientation and training about CGBRS, motion mouse and video-games. For initial
      sessions, relatively slow and large target movements will be selected for the computer games.
      Game speed, amplitude, mouse sensitivity, and difficulty will be progressed as tolerated for
      each participant.

      Participants will be asked to stand on a stationary treadmill, in front of a LED monitor
      which will be placed 1 meter away from the treadmill. The treadmill has front and side hand
      rails so is a convenient place to perform the DT balance activities. The participants will
      also be fitted with a safety harness. The participants will be asked to wear a head band
      which is instrumented with the motion sense mouse. Thus, hands-free head rotations will be
      used to interact with the computer games selected for the DT rehabilitation program. Six to
      eight computer games will be selected for each participant from a collection of over 60
      purchased from Big Fish Games (www.bigfishgames.com). The computer games involve
      goal-directed visuospatial executive cognitive activities including visual search and
      tracking of multiple targets, movements of different speeds to interact with game targets
      with varying movement precision, the presence of distracters, matching and puzzle game.

      Participants will play the computer games under the following conditions: -

        -  While standing on a fixed surface (warm -up duration for 5 minutes)

        -  While Standing on a compliant sponge pad to increase balance demands (duration - 10
           minutes)

        -  While walking on a treadmill at a predetermined comfortable speed for an interval of 2-3
           minutes with 1-2 min rest periods (duration of the treadmill walking component will be
           20 minutes.
    

Intervention name(s): Computer game based balance and walking rehabilitation for individuals with Parkinson's Disease
Intervention type(s): Other
Intervention description(s): All the participants will take part in an 8 week (twice per week) computer game based exercise program for dual task balance and dual task walk training. Participants will be standing in front of LED monitor. They will be asked to wear a head band which will be instrumented with motion sense mouse. Thus, hands-free head rotations will be used to interact with the computer games selected for the DT rehabilitation program. Participants will play few interactive computer games during - Normal standing (fixed surface), Standing on a compliant sponge pad and then while walking on a treadmill.
Intervention model: Single Group Assignment
Intervention model description: Single Group Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Treatment
Keywords: Balance; Gait