Virtual stroll helps study brain
 

Virtual stroll helps study brain

Sunday, 07 March 2010, University of Sydney
http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20100803-20685.html

A world first study on how thinking tasks impact on the 'freezing' of feet often experienced by people with Parkinson's Disease (PD) will lead to new directions for targeting therapy.

Conducted by the University of Sydney's Brain and Mind Research Institute and funded by The Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, the study uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and a customised 'virtual reality' environment to elicit the so-called Freezing of Gait (FOG) in PD patients. FOG is a leading cause of falls among PD patients and responds poorly to current treatments.

"While the mechanisms underlying FOG are unknown, our group recently proposed that these episodes may reflect a temporary overload in specific circuits of the brain," says the study's principle investigator Dr Simon Lewis.