"Aprendizagem implícita e a doença de Parkinson" / Implicit memory and Parkinsons disease
AUTOR(ES)
Rodrigo Pavão
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO
2007
RESUMO
The double dissociation between the long-term memory losses in Parkinsons disease (PD) and amnesic patients strengthens the implicit and explicit memory dissociation. However, although it is widely accepted that patients with PD have specific impairment of implicit memory functions, at least in the initial stages of the disease, the degree of this impairment is not used as criterion of classification. The progression of the PD and possible treatments are evaluated through methods as Hoehn and Yahr Staging of Parkinsons disease (HY) and Unified Parkinsons Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), that present a series of fragilities. This lack of evaluation instruments adjusted to PD generates difficulties to verify the effectiveness of treatments, for example, the one proposed by Coimbra and Junqueira (2003), which consists in administration of high doses of riboflavin and a red-meat-free diet. Thus, the objectives of the present work are (1) to develop an evaluation strategy of PD progression and (2) to evaluate if riboflavin associated with red-meat-free diet determines regression of the disease. The first experiment of this study focused on the first question by training PD patients in a serial reaction time of fingers-to-thumb task, which requires implicit memory, and other nuropsychological test, as simple reaction time, go-no-go and 1-back. Incongruences between performance and HY classification were observed; on the other hand, the index developed in the work did not present incongruences and seemed to be a good indicator for classification of the PD. The index is based in reaction time measures and learning rate, that seem to present the necessary refinement to evaluate the progression of the disease and changes related to treatments. The treatment of riboflavin associated with red-meat-free diet, which may reduce the motor symptoms of the PD, was evaluated using the measures of motor performance and acquisition of motor skill; the results are presented in the second experiment. This study did not concluded emphatically the effectiveness of the treatment. However, intriguing results suggest the necessity of a more complete evaluation of the treatments contribution to reduce impairments associated to Parkinsons disease.
ASSUNTO(S)
parkinson s disease memory tratamento aprendizagem progressão treatment learning doença de parkinson progression memória
