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Abstract
Parkinson’s disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disease in the United States, caused by the progressive loss of neurons, which decreases dopamine levels in the brain. Patients with Parkinson’s experience both physical symptoms such as tremors and rigidity, and a decrease in cognitive function. Typical occupational therapy for Parkinson’s patients includes working through fine motor rehabilitation exercises in sessions with an occupational therapist, followed by completing at-home exercises individually. These exercises are essential for patients to continue making progress in their rehabilitation therapies. Improvements in fine motor motion have also been correlated with improvements in cognitive function; therefore, by improving fine motor dexterity, patients can also improve cognitive symptoms. However, a key struggle for Parkinson’s patients is maintaining motivation to complete their at-home exercises as many lose motivation/are discouraged after failing to see progress. As a result, people with Parkinson’s need a way to add motivation to occupational therapy and view their gradual progress during rehabilitation therapies to maintain motivation for completion. A device referred to as the FLEX (Fine motor Learning and EXercise) glove has been developed and tested to increase patient motivation by pairing a pattern repetition game with daily rehabilitation exercises in order to improve cognitive function while tracking patient progress to display to both the patient and occupational therapist.
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