OBJECTIVE To determine if repeated dosing with methylphenidate hydrochloride (MPD) (Ritalin; Novartis Pharmaceuticals, East Hanover, NJ), an inhibitor of the dopamine transporter, would augment the effects of oral levodopa in patients with Parkinson disease. DESIGN The study was a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled crossover trial. SETTING The trial was conducted at the General Cl...

Five patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease with severe response fluctuations were selected for a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled study, concerning the clinical effects of subcutaneous apomorphine and its assessment in 'off'-periods. The study was designed as five n = 1 studies, in which every patient was his own control. The effect of apomorphine was studied by using the Colum...

BACKGROUND Treatment of Parkinson disease commonly includes levodopa and dopamine agonists; however, the interaction of these 2 drugs is poorly understood. OBJECTIVE To examine the effects of a dopamine agonist on the motor response to levodopa. DESIGN Double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, crossover clinical trial. SETTING Ambulatory academic referral center. Patients Thirteen pat...

Signal distortion of photoplethysmographs (PPGs) due to motion artifacts has been a limitation for developing real-time, wearable health monitoring devices. The artifacts in PPG signals are analyzed by comparing the frequency of the PPG with a reference pulse and daily life motions, including typing, writing, tapping, gesturing, walking, and running. Periodical motions in the range of pulse fre...

BACKGROUND Vascular risk factors are associated with increased risk of cognitive impairment and dementia, but their association with motor function, another key feature of aging, has received little research attention. We examined the association between trajectories of the Framingham general cardiovascular disease risk score (FRS) over midlife and motor function later in life. METHODS A tota...

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to assess participants' ability to perform tasks requiring attention, short term memory, and simple motor skill while sitting, standing or walking at an active workstation. METHODS Fifty participants completed the Stroop Color Word test (SCWT), Auditory Consonant Trigram test (ACTT), and Digital Finger Tapping test (DFTT) while sitting, standing and wa...

INTRODUCTION Musical performance is thought to rely predominantly on event-based timing involving a clock-like neural process and an explicit internal representation of the time interval. Some aspects of musical performance may rely on emergent timing, which is established through the optimization of movement kinematics, and can be maintained without reference to any explicit representation of ...