Ab. No. 155 Effect of Brain Gym Exercises on Executive Functions and Dual –Task Performance in Person’s With Parkinson’s Disease

Abstract

Introduction: Cognitive impairments are common in Parkinson’s disease, and one of the most noticeable features is dysfunction in the executive function. Because of these changes, performing dual tasks that require the person’s attention and concentration, tend to be more difficult to accomplish. Brain Gym exercise is an academic kinesiological program that stimulates various brain regions, with a particular emphasis on the corpus callosum, facilitating inter-hemisphere communication. In brain gym exercise participants engage in a wide variety of tasks that engage different aspects of cognitive and physical functioning. These exercises had shown to improve cognitive performance and fitness levels in active older adults. Considering this the study is conducted with an intent to find if there is any effect of brain gym exercises on executive function and dual task performance in the persons with Parkinson’s disease. Methods: 19 persons with Parkinson’s disease age between 50-75 years with stages I-III on Modified Hoehn and Yahr classification, who can identify the sequencing from 1-25 and A-Z and can walk for at least 9 m (30ft) with or without assistive device participated in the study. Institutional ethical committee approval and participants consent was obtained. Intervention comprising of 23 brain gym exercise, each exercise 3 times per session for 4 days a week for 2 weeks was given. Pre and post intervention Executive Function was assed using Delta Trail Making test and Dual Task Performance was assessed using Timed up and GO test – Cognition. Wilcoxon Signed Rank test was used to compare pre and post values of outcome measures and statistically significant difference was seen in both the outcome measures (with p value of 0.000) Conclusion: The study concluded that Brain gym exercises are effective in improving executive function, dual task performance and can be incorporated with conventional exercises in treatment of persons with Parkinson’s disease.