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A Wearable Mechatronic Device For Hand Tremor Monitoring And Suppression: Development And Evaluation, Yue Zhou

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Tremor, one of the most disabling symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD), significantly affects the quality of life of the individuals who suffer from it. These people live with difficulties with fine motor tasks, such as eating and writing, and suffer from social embarrassment. Traditional medicines are often ineffective, and surgery is highly invasive and risky. The emergence of wearable technology facilitates an externally worn mechatronic tremor suppression device as a potential alternative approach for tremor management. However, no device has been developed for the suppression of finger tremor that has been validated on a human.

It has been reported in …

Investigation Of Visual Perceptions In Parkinson's Disease And The Development Of Disease Monitoring Software, Matthew Bernardinis

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Non-motor Parkinson’s Disease (PD) symptoms are substantial factors of PD arising throughout disease stages, yet their diagnosis and monitoring remain a challenge. Sensory abnormalities in PD occur across sensory systems and disease stages, contributing to disease-related impairments. However, the extent of symptoms is unknown, with inadequate monitoring and treatment options furthering disease management difficulties. The current work studies movement-independent visual perceptions of time, displacement and velocity in PD patients across disease stages using levodopa, deep brain stimulation (DBS), or no PD therapy. Perceptual tasks were conducted using a computer-generated graphical device designed with a focus on simplicity and flexibility. Perception …

Effects Of A Unilateral Injection Of Botulinum Neurotoxin Subtype-A In The Subthalamic Nucleus Of A Parkinsonian Rat Model, Olga Khazov

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Dopaminergic degeneration in Parkinson’s disease (PD) leads to altered functional activity within the basal ganglia (BG) circuitry, including hyperactivity of the subthalamic nucleus (STN). Treatments restoring the BG functional circuitry often result in improvements in parkinsonian symptoms in patients and animal models. A recent study from our laboratory identified that infusing botulinum toxin (BoNT-A) into the internal globus pallidus provided a transient restoration of motor asymmetry and goal-directed locomotion in a rat model of PD. We hypothesized that infusions of BoNT-A into the STN in a parkinsonian rat model will improve motor asymmetry and locomotor abnormalities. Infusions of BoNT-A into …

Differentiating The Substantia Nigra And Ventral Tegmental Area In Early-Stage Parkinson's Disease Using Iron Imaging, Erind Alushaj

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Excessive midbrain iron accumulation in Parkinson’s Disease (PD) contributes to degeneration of the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) and ventral tegmental area (VTA). Despite this understanding, there are no validated PD biomarkers. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can localize and quantify brain iron for diagnosis of PD. Seventeen early-stage PD patients and twenty-one controls were scanned at 3T and 7T MRI. Using quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) and R2* relaxometry, we analyzed the average iron content in the SNc, substantia nigra pars reticulata (SNr), and VTA. QSM detected significantly higher SNc iron content in PD patients compared to controls at both …

Optimizing Gait Outcomes In Parkinson's Disease With Auditory Cues: The Effects Of Synchronization, Groove, And Beat Perception Ability, Emily A. Ready

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation explores a common, rehabilitative strategy for mitigating gait impairments in Parkinson’s disease (PD) called Rhythmic Auditory Stimulation (RAS). The effects of this intervention on gait in PD are well documented but highly variable, which poses difficulty for appropriate therapeutic application. Part of this variability may be related to individual musical abilities, such as beat perception accuracy, as most RAS interventions involve synchronizing with a beat. However, music is complex and variable. Therefore, factors inherent in the music itself may play a role in these differences, such as how much the music makes you want to move (groove), or …

"It's Not That I Have Parkinson's, I Am Parkinson's": The Management And Negotiation Of Identity In Older Adults With Parkinson's Disease, Elena Sheldrake

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Prior research has identified that older adults with Parkinson’s disease experience both personal and social difficulties due to the interactions between environmental factors (e.g. social attitudes about impairments) and their physical and cognitive challenges of their condition. My thesis explored how older adults with Parkinson’s disease negotiated their contexts of personal and social identity post-diagnosis. Using a constructivist, narrative approach, I aimed to understand what personal and social factors contributed to how people with Parkinson’s disease maintain, negotiate, and adapt their identity within the private sphere of the home and the broader community. For all five participants, three sessions took …

Alpha-Synuclein Toxicity Is Caused By Mitochondrial Dysfunction, Michael G. Tauro

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder, affecting roughly 1% of the population over the age of sixty years. Alpha-synuclein (aSyn) is a protein implicated in both familial and idiopathic forms of PD, yet despite the wealth of data implicating aSyn as a causative agent in PD, the mechanisms underlying its toxicity remain mostly unknown. Mitochondrial dysfunction is a major hallmark of PD, yet there is only limited evidence linking aSyn toxicity to mitochondrial dysfunction. My study establishes a novel aSyn model in respiring yeast cells, which allows me to explore how aSyn affects mitochondrial homeostasis and …