[CTN] CTN seminar: Prof. Quincy Almeida, 3:30 Dec. 8 in PAS 2464

[Bryan Tripp]

Hi everyone,

The next seminar is coming up on Tuesday. Our neighbour Prof. Quincy
Almeida will join us from Wilfrid Laurier University. The title and
abstract follow.

If you would like to join Dr. Almeida for dinner please contact Jeff
Orchard (cc'd) -- I'm expecting a baby any day, so I may not be available.

Regards,
Bryan


Parkinson’s disease: Sensorimotor transformations through a degenerating
circuit

Quincy J. Almeida
Director, Movement Disorders Research & Rehabilitation Centre
Professor, Faculty of Science
Wilfrid Laurier University

While it is well known that a variety of neural networks are essential for
the planning and control of human movement, the interaction between
sensory, perceptual and cognitive networks is not easy to disentangle.
Vision is critical to all of these processes, and required to accurately
detect and make judgments about objects and obstacles that we interact
with. Vision is also needed to interpret the progression of successful (or
unsuccessful) planned movements relative to environmental obstacles or
threats. In addition, higher level cognitive processes (attention,
executive function) are required for recognition and semantic processing of
environmental stimuli.

Interestingly, while the neural networks for all of these systems are known
to anatomically loop through the circuitry of the basal ganglia (BG),
little is known about how basal ganglia dysfunction, as in Parkinson’s
disease, might mechanistically influence movement control. This talk will
consider the controversies related to how movement might be compounded by
interactions between these processes.

One example that is highly related to vision is freezing of gait (FOG). It
is considered one of the most debilitating symptoms associated with
Parkinson’s disease (PD), yet there is considerable debate about the
underlying mechanisms of FOG. Research has demonstrated that vision can
have a tremendous impact on FOG episodes. In some cases, FOG is improved by
enriching the visual environment with step cues, yet in other circumstances
the richness of the visual (and sensory) environment is the very trigger of
FOG (e.g. narrow doorways, cluttered spaces, visual or auditory dual
tasks). Thus, there is a debate as to how visual environments actually
influence movement deficits (such as FOG), and many different mechanisms
have been suggested including: cognitive-attentional, sensory-perceptual,
and anxiety-provoking processes. Yet the inter-relationship between these
processes needs to be more carefully and thoroughly investigated.

In order to understand how visual stimuli may be associated with these
different theories, a series of experiments will be presented that examines
gaze behaviors during gait, in FOG-assisting and/or FOG-triggering
environments. Gaze behaviors will then allow us to examine how gait
deficits are associated. Results will be discussed in terms of
understanding the underlying mechanisms that contribute to FOG.
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