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Effects of Parkinson’s disease on optimization and structure of variance in multi-finger tasks

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Abstract

We explored the role of the basal ganglia in two components of multi-finger synergies by testing a group of patients with early-stage Parkinson’s disease and a group of healthy controls. Synergies were defined as co-varied adjustments of commands to individual fingers that reduced variance of the total force and moment of force. The framework of the uncontrolled manifold hypothesis was used to quantify such co-variation patterns, while average performance across repetitive trials (sharing patterns) was analyzed using the analytical inverse optimization (ANIO) approach. The subjects performed four-finger pressing tasks that involved the accurate production of combinations of the total force and total moment of force and also repetitive trials at two selected combinations of the total force and moment. The ANIO approach revealed significantly larger deviations of the experimental data planes from an optimal plane for the patients compared to the control subjects. The synergy indices computed for total force stabilization were significantly higher in the control subjects compared to the patients; this was not true for synergy indices computed for moment of force stabilization. The differences in the synergy indices were due to the larger amount of variance that affected total force in the patients, while the amount of variance that did not affect total force was comparable between the groups. We conclude that the basal ganglia play an important role in both components of synergies reflecting optimization of the sharing patterns and stability of performance with respect to functionally important variables.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NS-035032 and AG-18531 to ML, NS-060722 and NS-082151 to XH) and the HMC GCRC (NIH M01RR10732) and GCRC Construction Grant (C06RR016499). We would like to thank all the participants in the study and the study coordinator who assisted with this research, Ms. Brittany Jones.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Kinesiology, Rec.Hall-268N, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    Jaebum Park, Hang Jin Jo, Xuemei Huang & Mark L. Latash

  2. Department of Neurology, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Pennsylvania State University, Hershey, PA, 17033, USA

    Mechelle M. Lewis & Xuemei Huang

  3. Department of Pharmacology, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Pennsylvania State University, Hershey, PA, 17033, USA

    Mechelle M. Lewis & Xuemei Huang

  4. Department of Radiology, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Pennsylvania State University, Hershey, PA, 17033, USA

    Xuemei Huang

  5. Department of Neurosurgery, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Pennsylvania State University, Hershey, PA, 17033, USA

    Xuemei Huang

  6. Department of Kinesiology, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Pennsylvania State University, Hershey, PA, 17033, USA

    Jaebum Park, Hang Jin Jo, Xuemei Huang & Mark L. Latash

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  1. Jaebum Park
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Correspondence to Mark L. Latash.

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Park, J., Jo, H.J., Lewis, M.M. et al. Effects of Parkinson’s disease on optimization and structure of variance in multi-finger tasks. Exp Brain Res 231, 51–63 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-013-3665-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-013-3665-3

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