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The difference in visuomotor feedback velocity control during spiral drawing between Parkinson’s disease and essential tremor

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Abstract

In a spiral task, the accuracy of the spiral trajectory, which is affected by tracing or tracking ability, differs between patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and essential tremor (ET). However, not many studies have analyzed velocity differences between the groups during this task. This study aimed to examine differences between the groups related to this characteristic using a tablet. Fourteen PD, 12 ET, and 12 control group participants performed two tasks: tracing a given spiral (T1) and following a guiding point (T2). A digitized tablet was used to record movements and trajectory. Effects of direct visual feedback on intergroup and intragroup velocity were measured. Although PD patients had a significantly lower T1 velocity than the control group (p < 0.05), they could match the velocity of the guiding point (3.0 cm/s) in T2. There was no significant difference in the average T1 velocity between ET and the control groups (p = 0.26); however, the T2 velocity of ET patients was significantly higher than the control group (p < 0.05). They were also unable to adjust the velocity to match the guiding point, indicating that ET patients have a poorer ability to follow dynamic guidance. When both groups of patients have similar action tremor severity, their ability to follow dynamic guidance was still significantly different. Our study combined visual feedback with spiral drawing and demonstrated differences in the following-velocity distribution in PD and ET. This method may be used to distinguish the tremor presentation of both diseases, and thus, provide accurate diagnosis.

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Funding

This work was supported by the collaborative project between National Chiao Tung University and National Taiwan University Hospital Hsinchu Branch (grant numbers 104W970 and 105W970), and Taiwan Ministry of Science and Technology (grant number MOST 105-2628-E-009-003-MY3).

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Author notes

  1. Kai-Hsiang Chen, Po-Chieh Lin and Bing-Shiang Yang contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology, Hsinchu Branch, National Taiwan University Hospital, Hsinchu City, 300, Taiwan

    Kai-Hsiang Chen

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, 1001 University Road, Hsinchu City, 30010, Taiwan

    Po-Chieh Lin, Bing-Shiang Yang & Yu-Jung Chen

  3. Institute of Biomedical Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu City, 300, Taiwan

    Bing-Shiang Yang

Authors
  1. Kai-Hsiang Chen
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  2. Po-Chieh Lin
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  3. Bing-Shiang Yang
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  4. Yu-Jung Chen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bing-Shiang Yang.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Chen, KH., Lin, PC., Yang, BS. et al. The difference in visuomotor feedback velocity control during spiral drawing between Parkinson’s disease and essential tremor. Neurol Sci 39, 1057–1063 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-018-3331-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-018-3331-4

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