How far can I reach? The perception of upper body action capabilities in Parkinson\u2019s disease

Megan Rose Readman,Sally A Linkenauger,Ellen Poliakoff,Trevor J Crawford,Neil M Mclatchie

doi:10.3758/s13414-021-02340-y

Megan Rose Readman, Sally A Linkenauger + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-021-02340-y

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Abstract

Successful interaction within the environment is contingent upon one’s ability to accurately perceive the extent over which they can successfully perform actions, known as action boundaries. Healthy young adults are accurate in estimating their action boundaries and can flexibly update them to accommodate stable changes in their action capabilities. However, there are conditions in which motor abilities are subject to variability over time such as in Parkinson’s disease (PD). PD impairs the ability to perform actions and can lead to variability in perceptual-motor experience, but the effect on the perceptions of their action boundaries remains unknown. This study investigated the influence of altered perceptual-motor experience during PD, on the perceptions of action boundaries for reaching, grasping, and aperture passing. Thirty participants with mild-to-moderate idiopathic PD and 26 healthy older adults provided estimates of their reaching, grasping, and aperture-passing ability. Participants’ estimates were compared with their actual capabilities. There was no evidence that individuals with PD’s perceptions were less accurate than those of healthy controls. Furthermore, there was some evidence for more conservative estimates than seen in young healthy adults in reaching (both groups) and aperture passing (PD group). This suggests that the ability to judge action capabilities is preserved in mild to moderate PD.

Highlights

Successful interaction within the environment is contingent upon one’s ability to accurately perceive the extent over which they can successfully perform actions, known as action boundaries
The influence of altered perceptual-motor experience associated with Parkinson’s disease (PD) on perceptions of their action boundaries was examined for upper body actions across three tasks
The findings obtained indicate that both PD patients and healthy older adult controls perceptions of their action capabilities for reaching are more conservative than healthy younger adult controls

Summary

Participants

G*Power software (Faul et al, 2007) was used to perform an a priori power analysis to ascertain the required sample size in order to achieve adequate power. For the frequentist parameters defined, a sample size of N = 8 (four per condition) is required to achieve a power of .80 at an alpha of .05. For the frequentist parameters defined, a total sample size of N = 36 (18 per condition) is required to achieve a power of .80 at an alpha of .05. Due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, the sample size recruited, and subsequent data analyzed, was smaller than necessary in order to achieve adequate power for the grasping task (NPD = 19, NHealthy older adult controls = 21; but only the grasping task). Task 1: Perception of reaching ability Five axis stickers placed at 30o and 15o to the left, at the centre, and 15o and 30o to the right, were placed on the far side of the table. The size of the aperture was manipulated by moving a handle towards the right to create a larger aperture and towards the left to create a smaller aperture (see Fig. 1)

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