Related Experiment Videos
Screening for Parkinson's disease with response time batteries: a pilot study
Andrew M Johnson1, Philip A Vernon, Quincy J Almeida
1Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada. ajohnson@uwo.ca
BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making
|September 14, 2004
Summary
Movement time deficits accurately screen for Parkinson's disease (PD), showing 90% sensitivity and specificity. This simple measure may also help quantify PD severity, correlating with the UPDRS motor score.
Area of Science:
- Neurology
- Movement Disorders
- Biomedical Engineering
Background:
- Parkinson's disease (PD) is associated with significant response time deficits.
- Previous research has not extensively explored using these deficits for PD screening.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the utility of response time measures in screening for Parkinson's disease.
- To determine if movement time can quantify PD severity.
Main Methods:
- Utilized receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curves to establish cutoff scores for a composite of two choice response tasks.
- Cross-validated findings in independent patient and healthy participant samples.
Main Results:
- A unit-weighted movement time composite achieved 90% sensitivity and 90% specificity in identifying PD.
- Movement time showed a significant correlation (r = 0.59, p < 0.025) with the UPDRS motor score.
Conclusions:
- Chronometric speed measures, excluding complex movements, show potential for PD screening.
- Movement time may serve as a valuable tool for quantifying Parkinson's disease motor severity.