Force control deficits in rapid eye movement behavior disorder and Parkinson's disease

This study aimed to determine if there are deficits in force variability, force increase, force decrease and force errors in rapid eye movement behavior disorder (RBD) using established force control paradigms.

A cohort of 27 controls, 37 RBD and 37 early-stage Parkinson's disease (PD) were investigated. Individuals completed constant force and ballistic force control for the finger and ankle.

There was greater force variability in RBD compared with controls and PD during the constant force tasks (p < 0.05). Additionally, we split the RBD group into those with mild and moderate motor impairments and found both groups had higher force variability compared with controls (p < 0.05). PD were slower at increasing and decreasing force (p < 0.05) and this was not observed in the RBD group.

These findings provide new evidence that force variability may be one of the earliest markers of motor dysfunction in RBD before a subsequent diagnosis of neurological disease.

These findings provide new and important insights into the motor physiological changes in force control in RBD and PD, which may inform future biomarker studies.