Research

The Center for Neurorehabilitation is involved in a number of research projects:

Rehabilitation for Self-Management of Parkinson's Disease:

The overall goal of this research study is to determine whether rehabilitation that focuses on self-management of health helps to improve the day-to-day functioning and quality of life of community-living people with Parkinson's disease (PD), beyond the effects of medical treatment alone.

About 120 individuals with Parkinson's disease have participated in the study, and preliminary findings show positive effects of the rehabilitation program.

The Influence of Perceptual Disorders on Navigation Through Space in Parkinson's Disease

Individuals with Parkinson Disease not only experience movement disorders, but visual perception is also highly impacted by the disease state. This project focuses on the differences in optic flow perception within the left and right visual field in patients with Parkinson's disease and its effects on spatial navigation during locomotion and veering in particular.

Culture, gender, and health care stigma in Parkinsonism

This research project focuses on cultural and gender effects on health care practitioners' ability to diagnose non-verbal and verbal expression in people with Parkinson's Disease. The purpose of this project is to elucidate the consequences of facial and bodily movement stereotype processes on practitioner impressions of and conclusions about patients with Parkinson's disease.

Effects of a Movement Disorders Program in Parkinson's Disease

This research is a collaboration with the Department of Neurology at Boston Medical Center and the Rehabilitation Department at Braintree Rehabilitation Hospital. It includes the development of a database to record the activity of patients participating in a movement disorders program. To date, a total of more than 200 patients with typical and atypical Parkinson's disease have participated in the program. Researchers are investigating the feasibility of offering a specialized movement disorders program in an inpatient rehabilitation environment in addition to identifying the predictors of rehabilitation outcome.