Vision in Parkinson's Disease
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Disruption of visual processing in Parkinson's Disease
IRAS ID
165997
Contact name
Rimona Weil
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
UCL
Duration of Study in the UK
5 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Parkinson’s disease is a common neurodegenerative disease. As well as the recognised effects on movements, patients suffer from visual disturbance, even at the earliest stages. Later in the disease, visual symptoms such as hallucinations are extremely distressing to patients and their carers. There are no effective treatments and little is known about how and where visual processing breaks down in Parkinson’s disease, or why some patients with Parkinson’s disease are more prone to visual symptoms than others.
This study is a cross sectional and longitudinal study of patients at different stages of Parkinson’s disease, ranging from presymptomatic, through early stages to advanced Parkinson’s disease. We will examine different forms of Parkinson’s disease, including patients carrying genetic mutations associated with Parkinson’s disease and those with cognitive impairment.
Study participants will undergo psychology testing, a blood test and perform computer-based visual and auditory tasks. Some of these tasks will be performed whilst undergoing brain imaging. This will allow us to measure performance in visual processing tasks whilst examining brain responses. By combining behavioural measures of visual processing with underlying measures of brain responses in genetically and clinically defined patient groups, we can determine those aspects of visual processing that are damaged in different forms of Parkinson’s Disease. Patients will be assessed at baseline and then invited back for reassessment after one year.
The first stages of this project will involve pilot testing computerised visual and auditory tasks in patients and healthy controls.The key objectives are to identify the brain regions associated with visual dysfunction in different forms of Parkinson’s Disease and to determine if these can be detected at the earliest stages of the disease process. The eventual aim will be to identify outcome measures and targets to design rational therapies for therapeutic trials to improve visual dysfunction in Parkinson’s disease.
REC name
London - Queen Square Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/LO/0476
Date of REC Opinion
27 Mar 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion