Playing with my Ears: Audiomotor Skill Learning Across Ears and Hands in PD Patients

The overarching goal of this study is to examine the potential of exploiting the lateral relationship between auditory and motor circuits as a way to optimize sensorimotor-integration-based intervention techniques in unilateral PD. In the proposed seed project, we will take the first step in this direction and assess the effect of feedback laterality on audio-motor synchronization in affected side of unilateral PD.

To this end, we will adapt the novel cross-lateral audio-motor training design developed in Mukamel's lab to a synchronization task in PD patients (N=15) and age-matched controls (N=20). Participants will undergo training of an audio-motor beat synchronization tapping task. Importantly, beats will be presented monaurally, either ipsi- or contralateral to the tapping hand.