Kinematic Modeling in Parkinson’s Disease

Parkinson’s disease is a slowly progressing neurological disorder that affects motor function, resulting in bradykinesia, resting tremor, rigidity, and postural instability. The symptoms are associated with a loss of dopaminergic neurons in the brain, and a loss of dopamine is considered the primary defect in Parkinson’s disease. Recently, models of Parkinson’s disease have been constructed, including one that focuses on bradykinesia in Parkinson’s disease. Here, the full model with 26 equations is analyzed with principal component analysis for the purposes of dimensionality reduction. The results of principal component analysis and results of several simulations are presented, which appear to show rigidity, another characteristic of Parkinson’s disease.