A 12-Week Cycling Training Regimen Improves Upper Limb Functions in People With Parkinson's Disease.

Alexandra Nadeau,Marie-Ève Robillard,Catherine Duchesne,Freja Gheysen,Florian Bobeuf,Anne-Louise Lafontaine,Ovidiu Lungu,Louis Bherer,Réjean Plamondon,Arnaud Boré,Julien Doyon

doi:10.3389/fnhum.2018.00351

Abstract

Background: It has been proposed that physical exercise can help improve upper limb functions in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients; yet evidence for this hypothesis is limited.Objective: To assess the effects of aerobic exercise training (AET) on general upper limb functions in sedentary people with PD and healthy adults (HA).Methods: Two groups, 19 PD patients (Hoehn & Yahr ≤ 2) and 20 HA, matched on age and sedentary level, followed a 3-month stationary bicycle AET regimen. We used the kinematic theory framework to characterize and quantify the different motor control commands involved in performing simple upper-limb movements as drawing lines. Repeated measures ANCOVA models were used to assess the effect of AET in each group, as well as the difference between groups following the training regimen.Results: At baseline, PD individuals had a larger antagonist response, a longer elapsed time between the visual stimulus and the end of the movement, and a longer time of displacement of the stylus than the HA. Following the 12-week AET, PD participants showed significant decreases of the agonist and antagonist commands, as well as the antagonist response spread. A significant group ∗ session interaction effect was observed for the agonist command and the response spread of the antagonist command, suggesting a significant change for these two parameters only in PD patients following the AET. Among the differences observed at baseline, only the difference for the time of movement remained after AET.Conclusion: A 3-month AET has a significant positive impact on the capacity to draw lines in a more efficiency way, in PD patients, indicating an improvement in the upper limb motor function.

Highlights

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative condition characterized by cardinal motor symptoms, such as tremor, rigidity, and bradykinesia (Goetz et al, 2008)
The 3-month aerobic exercise training (AET) did not permit to observe any change in the UPDRS III in PD participants, whether in total, at the level of tremor, rigidity, or the right upper limb (Table 2)
We investigated the effects of an AET regimen using stationary bicycling on kinematic parameters of an arm movement in sedentary healthy adults (HA) and in PD patients

Summary

Introduction

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative condition characterized by cardinal motor symptoms, such as tremor, rigidity, and bradykinesia (Goetz et al, 2008) These symptoms impact the movement and function of the upper limbs during everyday activities such as writing, self-care, and fine object manipulation. Past studies have shown that PD patients present difficulties in force control, as well as in coordinating and controlling multiple tasks (Alberts et al, 1998) They are impaired in modulating muscles activity, as reflected by an antagonist activation occurring earlier than normal, overlapping with actions from the agonist muscle (Pfann et al, 2001). It has been proposed that physical exercise can help improve upper limb functions in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients; yet evidence for this hypothesis is limited

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Results

Conclusion