title: Sensory perception in Parkinson disease.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine whether there is a complex sensory disturbance that may be contributing to the motor deficit in patients with Parkinson disease.
  
  
  METHODS
  Comparison of performance by patients and healthy, age- and sex-matched subjects in tests of various sensory functions.
  
  
  METHODS
  The Center for Human Performance and Testing at a university hospital and research center.
  
  
  METHODS
  Ten subjects with Parkinson disease and 10 control subjects matched for age and sex.
  
  
  METHODS
  Performance on 4 subjects of the Sensory Integration and Praxis Test: finger identification, graphesthesia, localization of tactile stimuli, and kinesthesia.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Data were analyzed using paired t tests for ratio data and the paired Wilcoxon test for ordinal data. Patients with Parkinson disease performed significantly worse (P = .001) than the control patients on the test of kinesthesia. There were no significant differences between the 2 groups on the other subtests.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Without visual guidance, patients with Parkinson disease had more difficulty in perceiving the extent of a movement made to a target away from the body, a task requiring reliance on proprioceptive feedback. Parkinsonian patients had no more difficulty than controls in making movements to a target on the surface of the body when they could use tactile sensations. Movement difficulties in patients with Parkinson disease may relate in part to a decrease in proprioception. Activities that enhance kinesthetic awareness may be an important adjunct to the treatment of these patients.
authors.affiliation: Graduate Program in Physical Therapy, University of California, San Francisco, USA.
authors.forename: E E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Jobst
authors.forename: M E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Melnick
authors.forename: N N
authors.initials: NN
authors.lastname: Byl
authors.forename: G A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Dowling
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Aminoff
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007699:Kinesthesis; D009043:Motor Activity; D009048:Motor Skills; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012678:Sensation Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014110:Touch; D014785:Vision, Ocular