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

[Bryan Tripp]

Just a reminder about the talk today at 3:30, PAS 2464 as usual (see
below).

Bryan


On Sat, Dec 5, 2015 at 1:43 PM, Bryan Tripp <bptripp at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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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