Effects of Cognitive-motor Dual-Task Training and tDCS on Brain Electrical Activity Assessed by EEG and Cognitive Performance in Patients With Parkinson's Disease: a Randomized, Double-blind, Controlled Clinical Trial.
This study is a group controlled clinical trial. Parallel study, patients aged 40-80 years, with Parkinson disease. Twelve sessions, three times a week, for 30 minutes. Training will consist of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation linked to tredmill training, in 3 blocks of 7 minutes, and adicionally to the Experimental Group, dual-task cognitive-motor exercises, simultaneously. The investigators will use the folowwing instruments: Auditory Stroop Test, Trail Making Test, Montreal Cognitive Assessment, Timed-up-and-go ST and DT, UPDRS II and III and Eletroencefalography (EEG). The objective is to examine cognitive alterations on PD pacients due to intervention and the relationships between baseline outcomes in responders and non-responders to therapy.
• being diagnosed with idiopathic Parkinson's disease by a neurologist based on definitive evidence of responsiveness to levodopa at the start of the disease and the history of progressive hypokinesia with asymmetric onset. PD will be diagnosed based on Parkinson's Disease Society Brain Bank (PDSBB) criteria, as described in Hughes et al. (1992)
• Age between 40 and 70 years, with no distinction for sex, schooling level or other sociodemographic characteristics;
• disease staging between 1.5 and 3, according to the modified Hoehn and Yahr scale (Hoehn and Yahr, 1998);
• undergoing regular pharmacological treatment with levodopa (equivalent dose \> 300 mg) or taking antiparkinsonian medication, such as anticholinergics, selegiline, dopamine agonists, and COMT (catechol-O-methyl transferase) inhibitors for at least 4 weeks prior intervention;
• score of more than 24 points on the Mini-Mental State Examination (Folstein et al., 1975);
• not exhibiting other associated neurological diseases; and
• no musculoskeletal and/or cardiorespiratory changes that could compromise gait.