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Electrophysiological responses in cortex, related to performing repetitive movements following different types of external cues

Huertas Penen, Silvana (2020) Electrophysiological responses in cortex, related to performing repetitive movements following different types of external cues.

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Abstract:Parkinson’s disease affects around 1% of the population over 60 years and is generated due to the degeneration of nigrostriatal neurons and pathways.The most common motor symptoms presented in Parkinson’s disease are tremor at rest, freezing of gait and bradykinesia. New neurorehabilitation methods are being used to improve the symptoms for these patients, mainly based on the use of external cues to guide movements. It has been recognised that when using external cues that have appearances rates above 2Hz, the rehabilitation of repetitive movement is not as efficient as when using cues with appearances rates below this value. Furthermore, it has been noticed that the use of cues that follow multiple patterns have better results in rehabilitation than when cues that follow only one pattern are used. This thesis studies the cortex connectivity and activity associated to the use of cues with frequencies above and below 2Hz and isorhythmic and polyrhythmic cues. It is hypothesised that the differences in the neurorehabilitation process using different types of cues is related to the synchronisation of different neuronal networks, the Basal Ganglia-thalamo-cortical network and the Cerebellum-thalamo-cortical network. Furthermore, the differences in activity and connectivity between visual and auditory cues were also studied. To prove the hypotheses, an experimental study with healthy participants was developed, in which multiple types of cues were presented to the participants, and the data obtained from the study was analysed, concerning the activity and connectivity of cortex regions. The results of the study showed that the activity of the cortex regions associated to the Cerebellum-thalamo-cortical network is related with synchronisation of the regions when using frequencies below 2Hz, and the activity of the Basal Gangliathalamo-cortical network related to the frequencies above 2Hz. These differences were also found when using isorhythmic and polyrhythmic cues. For the visual and auditory cues, no clear differences were found. Finally, the hypotheses related to the connectivity of the Basal Ganglia-thalamo-cortical and Cerebellum-thalamo-cortical networks were not validated using the phase-locking value measure for connectivity
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Faculty:TNW: Science and Technology
Subject:44 medicine
Programme:Biomedical Engineering MSc (66226)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/84624
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