Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease that affects about 1% of the elderly population and accounts for substantial disability and health care costs. Disability is largely driven by mobility deficits caused by impaired gait. Effective treatments are available to restore lower limb function and improve gait, but response to treatment varies greatly from patient to patient and often shows only small effect sizes. Addressing this heterogeneity requires personalization, a concept referred to precision neurorehabilitation.
StimuLOOP.PD-Sleep intends to foster structured and reproducible methods for precision neurorehabilitation of gait in PD. The investigators will conduct a proof-of-concept study to investigate a sleep intervention tailored to the individual patient in the context of motor rehabilitation.
• Targeted auditory stimulation during sleep (TASS): The investigators aim to reactive rehabilitation-related memories through presentation of auditory stimuli during sleep with the goal of promoting motor memory consolidation into stable motor commands.
The investigators will leverage TASS to enhance consolidation of the movement patterns that are learned during rehabilitation.
The investigators expect that this intervention will lead to greater gains in functional walking ability and balance. Beyond demonstrating a proof-of-concept for novel methods of applying TASS stimulation in the context of neurorehabilitation, positive results of this project may have implications for neurorehabilitation treatment in general by providing first insights into the benefits and interplay of TASS with a rehabilitation.