Comparison Between Parkinson Disease Patients and Healthy Subjects in a Procedural Motor Learning Task: Preliminary Results

We are studying if Parkinson disease patients (PD) have a learning deficit, particularly a procedural motor learning deficit. PD patients, age-matched and young adult controls were asked to execute point-to-point movements in a “virtual mechanical environment” generated by a portable robot. We compare the learning rate of subjects while they learned to manipulate the novel force field. Our preliminary results suggest that PD patients present a deficit in the rate of procedural motor learning and that we can estimate their learning specific “equivalent” age.