Reduced habit-driven errors in Parkinson’s Disease

Colin Bannard*, Mariana Leriche, Oliver Bandmann, Christopher H. Brown, Elisa Ferracane, Álvaro Sánchez-Ferro, José Obeso, Peter Redgrave, Tom Stafford

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Parkinson’s Disease can be understood as a disorder of motor habits. A prediction of this theory is that early stage Parkinson’s patients will display fewer errors caused by interference from previously over-learned behaviours. We test this prediction in the domain of skilled typing, where actions are easy to record and errors easy to identify. We describe a method for categorizing errors as simple motor errors or habit-driven errors. We test Spanish and English participants with and without Parkinson’s, and show that indeed patients make fewer habit errors than healthy controls, and, further, that classification of error type increases the accuracy of discriminating between patients and healthy controls. As well as being a validation of a theory-led prediction, these results offer promise for automated, enhanced and early diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease.

Original languageEnglish
Article number3423
JournalScientific Reports
Volume9
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2019

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