Graduate Student Articles 3_ PDF

**Article 1: Graduate studnet psychology:2** **TRAINING FOR MICROGRAPHIA ALTERS NEURAL CONNECTIVITY IN PARKINSONʼS DISEASE Nackaerts et al., 2018**  Micrographia ahead before any other symptoms (something to note) **WHY DO WE CARE ABT THE RESEARCH ON THIS CLINICAL POPULATIO...

**Article 1: Graduate studnet psychology:2** **TRAINING FOR MICROGRAPHIA ALTERS NEURAL CONNECTIVITY IN PARKINSONʼS DISEASE Nackaerts et al., 2018**  Micrographia ahead before any other symptoms (something to note) **WHY DO WE CARE ABT THE RESEARCH ON THIS CLINICAL POPULATION WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF STUDYING THE CLINICAL POPULATION?** - **Rationale and Study Objectives:** -PREVIOUS STUDIES HAVE FAILED TO PROVIDE RIGOUS EVIDENCE FOR TRAINING-SPECIFICITY (specfically this symptom) -LEARNING RELATED EFFECTIVE CONNECTIVITY CHANGES ARE STILL ILLUSIVE, ESPECIALLY for motor skills relevant to daily life (handwriting) STUDY OBJECTIVES: cortical network shifts in long term training **Current study:** Cortical shifts in long-term training vs placebo (novel) 1. 2. - **HYPOTHESIS:** 1. In patients receiving writing training, they would find **increased connectivity in the cortico-cerebellar motor networks** (implicating the [supplementary motor area]) unlike those undergoing the placebo condition. 2. - **Methods** - - - - - - **STUDY DESIGN:** 1. 2. TRAINING GROUP: - How did the groups differ? Placebo: relaxation task Experimental: writing task **Behavioral assessment** 1. - 2. Cueing:Target zones= present at all times Uncued: target zones disappear after 1.5 s Wanted to assess: - -SCREENING FOR (SOS): systematic screening of handwriting difficulties -Scored evaluated/manually -Total SOS score consisted of: ○ Fluency of letter formation ○ Fluency in connections between letters ○ Regularity of letter height ○ Space between words ○ Straightness of sentences (P.S A higher SOS score indicated worse quality of handwriting) **MEASURED:** - - **CLINICAL BATTERY:** (Series of behavioral measures and questionnaires)\  DYNAMIC CAUSAL MODELING - - - **Which regions of Interest?**  **Regions of Intrest:** (based on known involvement: motor learning and handwriting, and PD) 1.Superior Parietal Lobe (SPL) 2\. Middle Temporal visual area ( bilateral motion-sensitive) 3.Cerebellum 4\. Supplementary Motor Area 5.Dorsal Pre Motor Cortex 6.Primary Motor Area **STATISTICAL ANALYSIS:** - - CONNECTIVITY DATA: A mixed model ANOVA was performed on the coupling estimates with TRAINING (experimental - placebo) as a between-subjects factor and CONDITION (cued-uncued), TIME (pre-post), and CONNECTION as within-subjects factors with Manual Ability Measure (MAM-16) scores as a covariate **Adding of Additional Covariates** \- Explore potential effects of disease severity and or medication intake (results: didnt see changes when covariates where added) **RESULTS:** **Statistical Analysis: MAM-16** **Behavioral Data:** - - - - - NEURAL ACTIVATION PATTERN: Similar networks were activated post-training compared to baseline - - SIG CHANGE: BASELINE AND EXPERIMENTAL (SIG CHANGE) SIGNIFICANT CHANGES IN BRAIN AREAS (EXPERIMENTAL) NO MAIN EFFECT GROUP TIME See motor learning improve connectivity (those who got training-- more than those who didnt in control group)  - - - - - - - - **STUDY 2!** **Cortical and Subcortical Areas Involved in Regulation of Reach Movement Speed in Human Brain: fMRI STUDY** - - - - - - - **Why study Speed** - - - **HISTORY OF REACHING SPEED RESEARCH:**  **M1, pMG: ALL these neurons seemed to active by preferred directionality** **iEEG:** **-I**ntracranial EEG: implanting electrodes in the scalp (see cortical areas; see more in-depth) -Strong associations in the human hand/arm motor area **Does direction matter?** **PET Scan:** Involvement in supplementary motor cortex, cerebellum, and basal ganglia **What's the GAP? fMRI?\ ** **Hypothesis:** - **Methods:** -14 participants (mean age 24; 6 female) -Went through MRI (speed paradigm while in an MRI) -Event-related design: 4 sessions of 12-minute -Within subjects design (comparisons) **Methods: fMRI:** -3T Scanner (Functional) -31 Structural Image (anatomical): need to see and lay over anatomically -MNI: Template (images spatially normalized to fit); compare and -GLM: Conducted to investigate gow presence of movement and speed impacted neural activation  **Why separate speed and movement: control for direction (see if it isnt involved)** 1. 2. 3. **Arm Movement Tracking:** - - RESULTS: ROI: Speed: - - Movement: - -  Overlap : SMA (movement and speed) **SPEED RELATED** - - - - **MOVEMENT.** -Primary SMC -Extended regions of SMA -Anterior pulvinar **OVERLAP** \*SMA -minimal: contralateral thalamus (SUBDIVISION OF AREA ITSELF: **Directionality brain region** -no activation of brain regions  **IMPLICATIONS:** - - - - **Things to Think on! 💭** - -