Brain Fitness in Parkinson's Disease

Parkinson's Disease (PD) affects about 1 million individuals in the United States. In
addition to the typical motor dysfunction, PD also affects cognition and vision, even in
early stages of the disease, impairing instrumental activities of daily living such as
driving. Reduced cognitive speed of processing, or bradyphrenia, strongly contributes to
cognitive decline in PD. Recent research has demonstrated that interventions can enhance
cognitive speed of processing, protect against further cognitive decline, and improve the
everyday functioning of relatively healthy, older adults. However, the potential of such
training techniques to enhance cognitive functions among subpopulations with different
disease states, such as PD, has not been thoroughly investigated. The proposed study will
further examine the feasibility and test the efficacy of a well-established cognitive
training tool among individuals in the early stages of PD who have not been diagnosed with
dementia. A variety of factors have been found to influence cognitive performance among
persons with PD and may moderate their ability to benefit from cognitive training such as
age at disease onset, disease duration, manifestation, severity, and medication use as well
as concomitant depression. These factors along with demographic variables will be evaluated
as moderators of training benefit. Baseline cognitive assessments will be completed among
seventy-five individuals with PD who will be randomized to cognitive training or a
treatment-delayed control condition. The efficacy of training to immediately enhance
cognitive functioning will be evaluated through a post-training (or equivalent delay)
assessment. Disease and demographic factors that may impact the efficacy of cognitive
training for persons with PD will be examined in relation to training gains. Considering
that cognitive function among individuals with PD is a strong predictor of everyday
functioning and subsequent need for long term care, enhancing cognitive function of
individuals with PD through training has great potential to prolong such persons'
productivity, independence, and quality of life. The information gained from this study will
be useful for identifying individuals with PD who are most likely to benefit from cognitive
training as well as the development, refinement, and implementation of appropriate cognitive
interventions for this population.