NCT05696197

Learning Potential of Patients With Parkinson's Disease After Two Weeks of Targeted Touchscreen Training

Completed NA Last updated 23 January 2025

What this trial tests

NA trial testing Targeted touchscreen training in Parkinson Disease in 36 participants. Completed in 31 January 2023.

Timeline

10 January 2022

Primary endpoint
19 January 2023

31 January 2023

Quick facts

Lead sponsor	KU Leuven
Phase	NA
Status	Completed
Study type	INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation	randomized
Design	parallel
Masking	none
Primary purpose	treatment
Enrollment	36
Start date	10 January 2022
Primary completion	19 January 2023
Estimated completion	31 January 2023
Sites	1 location across Belgium

Drugs / interventions tested

• Targeted touchscreen training

Conditions studied

• Parkinson Disease — all drugs for Parkinson Disease →

Sponsor

KU Leuven — full company profile →

Who can join

Eligibility, any sex, with Parkinson Disease. Patients with the condition only — healthy volunteers not accepted.

Sponsor's own description

Parkinson's disease (PD) is characterized by severe motor and non-motor symptoms, including upper limb dysfunction. Due to the degradation of dopaminergic neurons in the striatum, PD patients experience difficulties with motor learning and more specifically with the consolidation of motor memory. Recent work showed that intensive writing training improved writing skills in PD. Although consolidation effects were present, difficulties with retention were also still apparent. Besides impacting writing, manual dexterity deficits in PD can also affect the use of touchscreens. Researchers from our lab demonstrated that impairments were most pronounced in multi-direction sliding motions, indicating the need for training of these motor skills. Our lab demonstrated the classic difficulties with retention in PD after one session of training of a swipe and slide pattern on a tablet (SSP-task) as single task (ST), although immediate gains were demonstrated. Therefore, in this study the investigators will examine whether a two-week home-based training program of a tablet-based SSP-training program will lead to immediate and consolidated improvements that are retained in time. This program will combine ST and dual task (DT) training to provide variation during the training period, but also to increase the cognitive challenge during learning, thereby stimulation consolidation of learning. The primary aim of this study consists of investigating the learning effects after two weeks of targeted touchscreen training. Secondary, the investigators will examine whether these effects will also be retained after four weeks without practice and whether targeted training results in consolidated improvements, in terms of automaticity and transfer towards an untrained task. Given the objective recording of compliance to the training protocol, the investigators will explore the association between compliance rates and learning effects.

Publications & conference data

1 peer-reviewed publication reference this trial (live from Europe PMC):

1. Using Digital Outcomes to Measure Meaningful Aspects of Health in Clinical Trials for Parkinson's Disease: A Scoping Review.
   van Es MJ, Timmermans NA, Meinders MJ, Nolen WA, et al · · 2026 · PMID 42077420 · DOI 10.1159/000550956