Quantifying loss of motor skills in Parkinson’s disease with a tracking 'game'
Themes: Life Science & Health, Aerospace
Proof of principle
A TRL is a measure to indicate the matureness of a developing technology. When an innovative idea is discovered it is often not directly suitable for application. Usually such novel idea is subjected to further experimentation, testing and prototyping before it can be implemented. The image below shows how to read TRL’s to categorise the innovative ideas.
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Why?
Key to a good treatment of Parkinson's disease is accurate and early detection, and high-resolution quantification of the severity of loss of motor skills. We developed a tracking 'game' that can do just this.
How?
The data recorded in the game allows for separation of different aspects of patients' control behaviour (e.g. control gain, response delay). This provides a quantification of reflexive and sustained motor skills at a unique resolution.
When?
Proof of principle results show clear differences in motor skills between patients and healthy controls, as well as key differences among individual patients. Large scale validation is our next step, clinical application would be possible within several years.
Dr. ir. Daan Pool