Author Archives: RobertKamper

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December in July

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The title refers to the fact that this post was drafted back in December 2016 as an email InfoShare for the Capitol Area Parkinson’s Support (CAPS) group, which is meeting today (July 15 2017) at 2 PM. Never did send it out. So here it is, a few months late, but the news is still timely. Especially the value of early treatment and diagnosis of PD.  So, here it is:
The London School of Economics and Political Science recently released a report on the “Value of Early Diagnosis and Treatment in Parkinson’s Disease”, a literature review of recent studies with recommendations for action. It can be downloaded at http://www.braincouncil.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Parkinson-report-2016-1.pdf 
On a broader view of PD,  here’s a link to a page that has links to just about everything Parkinson’s – The National Institutes of Health (NIH) U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) Medline Plus topic page on Parkinson’s Disease.

Parkinson’s Disease: MedlinePlus

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a movement disorder. It causes tremors, stiffness, and slow movement. It gets wo…
OK – you can spend a week going through all of that information. 
So here are the items mentioned in the subject headline:
First, evidence that DBS is helpful in early stages of PDS, not just in later stages. Benefits extend for at least 5 years.

Motor Skill Improvement With DBS Seen in Early Parkinson’s

The treatment, linked to benefits in advanced disease, shows signs of significant improvement in early-stage dis…
The PDF copy of the research paper referenced in the above news article can be found at this link:
A less drastic approach than brain surgery might be helpful for motor symptoms:

TMS May Ease Bradykinesia, Rigidity in Parkinson’s

New research helps pinpoint which motor symptoms of PD respond to transcranial magnetic stimulation.
Next, contradictory evidence regarding whether statins used to lower cholesterol levels offer a protective effect for PD – previous analyses said yes, but further massage of the data reveals that the answer is not as simple as it seemed at first.

Statin Use Linked to Increased Parkinson’s Risk

Contrary to previous research, a new study shows a higher, rather than lower, risk for Parkinson’s disease a…
Here are links to related articles, papers, and abstracts:

Statins Protective Against Parkinson’s: More Evidence

Further evidence that statin use is associated with a reduction in risk of Parkinson’s disease has come from…
Earlier this year, an analysis of ten reports that yielded different conclusions after adjusting for cholesterol levels.

Confounding of the association between statins and Parkinson disease: syste…
In 2012, the JAMA Neurology journal published a prospective analysis that indicated statins reduced the risk of PD. (PDF of full article is available for free download):
Several years ago, an analysis found publication bias in favor of positive results, and both a protective effect for statin use and no protective effect for long term statin use:

Statin use and risk of Parkinson’s disease: a meta-analysis of observationa…

Inconsistent results regarding the association between statin use and risk of Parkinson’s disease (PD) have been…
And last year, an analysis of published reports that found that use of statins was not protective for PD, in contrast to the hypothesis that statins are protective.

Statins, plasma cholesterol, and risk of Parkinson’s disease: A prospec…
Exercise, Parkinson's, Research, Reviews , Leave a comment

Nordic Walking & PD – no decision yet.

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Systematic review of studies involving Nordic Walking and Parkinson’s was conducted. Due to differences in study designs, can’t really say whether NW should be included in exercise treatments for folks with PD.

Nordic Walking for the management of people with Parkinson’s disease: a systematic review

Lucia Cugusi, PhD et al.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pmrj.2017.06.021

Abstract

Background

It is well known that physical exercise is the main therapeutic element of rehabilitation programs for people with Parkinson’s disease (PD). As traditional forms of exercise can guarantee significant health benefits, the emergence of non-conventional physical activities, such as Nordic walking (NW), may add positive effects.

Objective

To appraise the available evidence on the main effects of NW in the rehabilitation programs for people with PD and to propose a design for upcoming research that might improve the uniformity of future trials.

Study Design

Systematic review

Literature Survey.

A literature search of five established databases (PubMed, MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science and Cochrane) was conducted.

Method

ology. Any relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs) pertinent to NW in PD published in English from inception to February 2017, were included. PRISMA guidelines were followed and the methodological quality of each study was assessed by the PEDro scale.

Data Synthesis

Sixty-six studies were retrieved and 6 RCTs (221 subjects) entered the qualitative synthesis. Overall, these studies portrayed NW as feasible and likely to be effective in improving the functional and clinical outcomes of people with PD. When comparing NW with other exercise-based interventions such as treadmill training, free walking, a program of standardized whole-body movements with maximal amplitude (LSVT®BIG training) or a home-based exercise program, the findings proved controversial.

Conclusions

High heterogeneity and methodological discrepancies among the studies prevent from drawing firm conclusions on the effectiveness of NW in comparison with other exercise-based interventions currently employed in people with PD. Further investigations with a common design are necessary to verify whether NW may be included within conventional rehabilitation programs commonly recommended to people with PD.

Parkinson's, Research , Leave a comment

Autoimmune response may play a role in Parkinson’s

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Original of this story at: Medical News Today web site 21 June 2017

The exact causes of Parkinson’s disease are unknown, but an important hallmark is the buildup of damaged alpha-synuclein protein in dopamine-producing cells.

The new study reveals evidence that two fragments of alpha-synuclein can trigger T cells to initiate an attack by the immune system.

The researchers tested blood samples from 67 patients with Parkinson’s disease and control samples from 36 healthy patients.

They exposed the blood samples to fragments of proteins found in brain cells, including fragments of alpha-synuclein. The blood from the controls hardly reacted, but T cells in the blood from the Parkinson’s patients had a strong reaction to defined fragments from alpha-synuclein

The finding suggests that certain variants of MHC – such as those associated with Parkinson’s disease – may cause T cells to mistakenly identify the alpha-synuclein fragments as pathogens and thus trigger an autoimmune response that destroys the offending cells.

A lot of work still needs to be done,, but it could help to provide a diagnostic test for risk or early stages of PD, which is sorely needed.

I wonder – Could you get allergy shots with alpha synuclein protein fragments to reduce or eliminate the autoimmune response and thus keep T-Cells from attacking the dopaminergic neurons?

 

Music, Parkinson's, Research, The Meaning of Life , Leave a comment

Contributing to Research via DNA sharing

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I had my DNA analyzed by 23AndMe and in addition to getting some somewhat innocuous reports on my genetic makeup (including the revelation that there is about .5% match each with Askenazi and African groups somewhere in my ancestry, plus some Neanderthal genes) my data has been anonymously included in nine published articles/studies so far, including:

  1.   23and Me blog article on Depression and genes:  https://blog.23andme.com/23andme-research/new-genetic-findings-on-depression/     The original (abstract of) the article on genes associated with depression:  http://www.nature.com/ng/journal/v48/n9/full/ng.3623.html 
  2.  On genes related to risks of basal cell carcinoma:  https://blog.23andme.com/23andme-research/new-study-on-genetics-of-common-type-of-skin-cancer/   Original article in Nature Communications:  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4992160/  
  3.  AND OTHERS which can be found at 23AndMe Blog – Research category

    Live long and Prosper!

Parkinson's, Research Leave a comment

Visual tests, distorted pictures of cats and dogs, dementia and Parkinson’s…

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Medscape reports on new research results from the International Conference on Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders, held in Vancouver, BC, Canada June 4 – 8 2017.

Pictures of Cats and Dogs suggest identification of high risk for Parkinson’s dementia.

When viewing pictures of cats and dogs with no distortion, medium distortion, and strong distortion, Parkinson’s Patients did worse than controls in distinguishing between cats and dogs in the medium distortion condition, pointing to possible improved tests and treatments to prevent dementia in Parkinson’s.

Autopsy studies of patients with PD confirm that this area of the brain — the infero-temporal and parieto-occipital cortex — is affected, she noted. “So we already know that there is some clue that the visual processing part of the brain is important.”

Current visuo-perceptual tests measure only one or two aspects of visual processing and tend to be “too easy,” said Dr Weil. “Everyone does very well on them and by the time they do badly, their disease may have progressed quite a bit. We need trickier tests.”

As well, current tests measure visual processing only in small numbers of patients. Online testing enables access to large numbers of patients.

…

“People think of PD as a disorder of movement but it’s much more complex and affects much more than just movement.”

A key question then, she said, is how does PD affect the brain? “Whatever it is that causes PD doesn’t just involve the deep part of the brain, but also involves the thinking and memory parts, and the fact that people have trouble with these tests suggests that those bits are involved.”

 

depression, Music, Parkinson's , Leave a comment

Nostalgia can be good for you

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Contrary to what had been thought for many years, psychology as a science has within the last few years done research into nostalgia, and has found that it can be positive in its results.

It has been so good, in fact, that the University of Southampton in the UK has created a Nostalgia Center.

And to do research, they’ve created a Nostalgia scale for measurement.

some other overlapping research involves music and nostalgia

At UC Davis, they study how music and nostalgia interact.

It’s all good.

 

Music, Research, Uncategorized Leave a comment

Music research: a scale to get beyond the non-musician/musician binary classification

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This is just a reference to an article and its abstract, nothing more, nothing less.

Multidimensional measurement of exposure to music in childhood: Beyond the musician/non-musician dichotomy

Hugo Cogo-Moreira, Alexandra Lamont

 

Abstract

Much research in music psychology characterizes the music background of its participants in a dichotomous manner, labeling participants as “musicians” and “non-musicians” or professionals and non-professionals. However, this terminology is inconsistent from study to study, and even more sophisticated measures fail to accurately represent music experiences; moreover, there is no standardized measure suitable for use with younger participants. This article presents a new measure, the Exposure to Music in Childhood Inventory, for capturing the amount and type of exposure to music activities suitable for use with children. Children from public and private school, aged 5 to 13 years old (N = 1006; M = 8.36 years old, SD = 1.5 years) completed the inventory, and through a combination of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis a two-factor solution was obtained. The first factor includes personal music listening activities, home musical environment and the influence of television and the internet; the second reflects more social, active and public elements of music-making, playing an instrument and performing. This scale is suitable for use in a wide range of future research to more accurately assess the kinds of music activities children have access to in a dimensional way, which can have a bearing on their understanding of music.

 

 

Music, Research , Leave a comment

An NIH-Kennedy Center Initiative to Explore Music and the Mind

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Link to full article:  http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2630954

(I know how to embed a link inside text – just chose not to do it that way this time, thanks for the advice, folks).  Here’s a couple of quotes from the article:

Music is fundamental to the human species in ways that reach beyond entertainment or pastime. In Musicophilia, Oliver Sacks noted that music can “calm us, animate us, comfort us, thrill us, or serve to organize and synchronize us at work or play, [but] it may be especially powerful and have great therapeutic potential for patients with a variety of neurological conditions.”

. . .

Processing music is one of the most cognitively demanding tasks our brains undertake, and creating and performing music is even more complex. We are just beginning to understand what neural processes underlie the effects of active music making, and a better appreciation of these processes would likely enhance understanding of brain responses to other stimuli and tasks. There is already compelling evidence that in children, music training assists development of language skills, auditory processing, and educational achievement compared with untrained peers,2– 4 and anecdotally, many top professionals across different disciplines have musical training in their background.

The article describes the beginning of this initiative and why it is important – it will be interesting to follow this topic in the future.

Here’s the reference list from the article. More good info there.

References

1.

Schlaug  G.  Musicians and music making as a model for the study of brain plasticity.  Prog Brain Res. 2015;217:37-55. doi:10.1016/bs.pbr.2014.11.020PubMed

2.

Hallam  S.  The power of music: its impact on the intellectual, social and personal development of children and young people.  Int J Music Educ. 2010;28(3):269-289. doi:10.1177/0255761410370658Article

3.

The Arts and Human Development: Learning Across the Lifespan. National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with US Dept of Health and Human Services. https://www.arts.gov/sites/default/files/TheArtsAndHumanDev.pdf. 2011. Accessed April 5, 2017.

4.

Moreno  S, Bialystok  E, Barac  R,  et al.  Short-term music training enhances verbal intelligence and executive function.  Psychol Sci. 2011;22(11):1425-1433.PubMedArticle

5.

Bailey  JA, Zatorre  RJ, Penhune  VB.  Early musical training is linked to gray matter structure in the ventral premotor cortex and auditory-motor rhythm synchronization performance.  J Cogn Neurosci. 2014;26(4):755-767.PubMedArticle

6.

Patel  AD.  Why would musical training benefit the neural encoding of speech? the OPERA hypothesis.  Front Psychol. 2011;2:142. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00142PubMedArticle

7.

Norman-Haignere  S, Kanwisher  NG, McDermott  JH.  Distinct cortical pathways for music and speech revealed by hypothesis-free voxel decomposition.  Neuron. 2015;88(6):1281-1296.PubMedArticle

8.

Limb  CJ, Braun  AR.  Neural substrates of spontaneous musical performance: an FMRI study of jazz improvisation.  PLoS One. 2008;3(2):e1679.PubMedArticle

9.

Salimpoor  VN, Benovoy  M, Larcher  K, Dagher  A, Zatorre  RJ.  Anatomically distinct dopamine release during anticipation and experience of peak emotion to music.  Nat Neurosci. 2011;14(2):257-262.PubMedArticle
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A treasure trove of learning

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Found an interesting site out in Califrnia, an educatioanl institution naturally, with several thought provoking titles availble for reading – originally got to the site by a link to the paper on the positive effects of music therapy .

http://digitalcommons.csumb.edu/caps_thes_all/  is a cresaative commons digital archive for the  California State University, Monterey Bay.:

There is an account registration, but it is not needed to download all of the files. Some of the Capstone projects and theses that I found interesting were:

PDF  A Discussion Regarding Various Animals’ Abilities to Make Music and Move Rhythmically to Songs, Emilie R. Bufford

PDF And The Beat Goes on: The Story of the Drum Machine, Ismael Medina

PDF Engineers Throughout Jazz History, Alex Declet

PDF  Sound Synthesis: Methods and Techniques, Christopher E. Hilker

PDF  The Benefits of Music in Child Development, Dulce-Paola Ixtupe

PDF  The Positive Effect Music Therapy Has on People, Rita Oby Ebo

PDF  Accommodating Students Different Learning Styles with the Use of Technology, Jaime Prieto

PDF   Comparing the Cost of Preamplifiers to Their Sonic Fidelity and Frequency Output, Jackson O. Hunter

PDF  Self-Expression Through Dance in Early Elementary School, Emily Blythe

PDF  The Benefits of Outdoor Education and Experiential Learning in Elementary Schools, Elizabeth F. Valentino

PDF  The Benefits of Outdoor Education Curriculum for Elementary School Students with Nature Deficit Disorder, Madison L. Allen

PDF  Incorporating Music and Arts to Enhancing the Learning Experience of Elementary School Students, Ashley Fernandez

PDF  Making the Garden a Viable Part of Curriculum, Laura Forbes

PDF  Variety for Vocalists, Jonathan Morgadinho