Context-Dependent Learning in People With Parkinson's Disease

Ya-Yun LeeDivision of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles;Healthy Aging Research Center, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, TaiwanCorrespondence[email protected]

Carolee J. WinsteinDivision of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles

James GordonDivision of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles

Giselle M. PetzingerDepartment of Neurology, Division for Movement Disorders, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles

Elizabeth M. ZelinskiDavis School of Gerontology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles

Beth E. FisherDivision of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles;Department of Neurology, Division for Movement Disorders, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles

ABSTRACT

Context-dependent learning is a phenomenon in which people demonstrate superior performance in the context in which they originally learned a skill but perform less well in a novel context. This study investigated context-dependent learning in people with Parkinson's disease (PD) and age-matched nondisabled adults. All participants practiced 3 finger sequences, each embedded within a unique context (colors and locations on a computer screen). One day after practice, the participants were tested either under the sequence-context associations remained the same as during practice, or the sequence-context associations were changed (SWITCH). Compared with nondisabled adults, people with PD demonstrated significantly greater decrement in performance (especially movement time) under the SWITCH condition, suggesting that individuals with PD are more context dependent than nondisabled adults.

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FUNDING

This study was supported by the Team Parkinson and The Parkinson Alliance foundation.

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Context-Dependent Learning in People With Parkinson's Disease

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Context-Dependent Learning in People With Parkinson's Disease

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