Reaching and stepping respond differently to medication and cueing in Parkinson’s disease

The basal ganglia contribute to internal timekeeping, and dopaminergic medication has been observed to moderate timing deficits associated with Parkinson’s Disease (PD) during single joint movements. However, it is unclear whether similar effects can be observed in multi-joint movements. Twenty-five people with PD and twelve healthy peers performed repetitive reaching and stepping-in-place tasks with and without auditory cues at their self-selected maximal cadence. The PD group was measured ON and OFF medication. Reduced cadence error was found for both groups and tasks when cued, and ON PD exhibited decreased cadence compared to OFF PD. Overall timing variability was no different from controls, but differences were found in estimates of clock and motor variance using the Wing-Kristofferson model of interval timing. A medication and cueing interaction during the reaching task produced increased clock variance in uncued, ON PD. During the stepping task, clock and motor variance of the PD group were unaffected by cues, in contrast to the control group. Serial lag-one correlation was reduced in both groups for cued reaching, but was unaffected by cueing or medication in the PD group when stepping-in-place. These findings suggest that overall timing variability may not capture timing deficits in PD.