The research focused on muscle stiffness, one of the main signs of the disease which, in addition to compromising movement, can cause pain to the patient. This symptom has long been a puzzle to clinicians, but now the study has revealed a neural network involved in stiffness, paving the way for more targeted and effective therapies.
A crucial discovery in Parkinson’s disease has been published by Sapienza University of Rome and by the Irccs Neuromed of Pozzilli (Is). The research focused on muscle stiffness, one of the main signs of the disease which, in addition to compromising movement, can cause pain to the patient. This symptom has long been a puzzle to clinicians, but now the study has revealed a neural network involved in stiffness, paving the way for more targeted and effective therapies.
The study was conducted on 20 patients with Parkinson’s disease and compared with 25 healthy people, using a robotic system that allowed the wrists of the subjects studied to be passively extended. By varying the speeds of the movements, the researchers were able to quantify stiffness and relate the biomechanical components to those of nervous system activity.
The understanding of stiffness in Parkinson’s disease is still poorly understood and clinicians have few tools at their disposal to measure it and perform an objective classification. However, thanks to this new experimental paradigm based on integrated robotic instrumentation and neurophysiology, the authors of the scientific work have opened up new perspectives in the field of disease research.
Their approach has led to a significant advance in understanding the mechanisms that cause muscle stiffness in Parkinson’s disease. The integration of neurophysiological measurements with robotics has allowed researchers to identify the mechanisms that cause this strange stiffness, opening new perspectives for new, more targeted and effective therapies. The discovery is fundamental because, to date, patients with Parkinson’s are forced to live with symptoms that limit their quality of life, but thanks to this study, new therapies could be developed for the treatment of the disease and life could be made of patients much more comfortable.
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