“QEEG, NIRS and neuropsychological analyses during a tai chi training program in patients with Parkinson’s disease”
Authors: Gschwandtner, U.; Toloraia, K.; Meyer, A.; Beltrani, S.; Fuhr, P.
Dept. of Neurology-Clinical Neurophysiology, University Hospital, Basel, Switzerland
Objective and Method: In PD-patients more than 50% are suffering from cognitive decline during the course of their disease. Therefore it is an urgent need for developing therapeutics for stabilization of this cognitive decline. Tai chi- training (1x50 min per week) over 4 weeks in combination with cognitive and speech therapy were administered in 27 PD patients (mean age 68 y-range 62-72 y). A comprehensive cognitive test battery as well as NIRS (Near Infrared Spectroscopy) and Dry-EEG-recording were applied at BL, after 4 weeks of training and after a 6 month- FU. For control 11 well matched PD patients without any specific training were investigated. For statistics we used T-test and ANOVA.
Results: Several cognitive tests (Tower of London, Corsi-test bw, Rey-Figure direct recall) showed significant (p < 0.05) improvements after training in comparison to controls. There were no dropout from Dry- EEG recordings and the device was well tolerated. Data of frequency- and connectivity- analyses will be presented.
Conclusion: Thai chi training for cognitive stabilization in PD-patients could be a promising tool especially under monitoring of NIRS and Dry-EEG.