Implicit motor learning in patients with Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease: differences in learning abilities?

Abstract

Experimental studies show intact implicit motor learning in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) but the results for patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) are inconclusive. This study tests implicit sequence learning in AD and PD patients, and healthy controls, using the classical Serial Reaction Time Task (SRTT), and a somewhat similar Pattern Learning Task (PLT), which involves stylus movements in different directions, and which allows detailed movement analysis. As expected, the time measures showed less implicit motor learning in the PD patients relative to the other groups in both tasks, but their error percentages increased when the sequence changed from a fixed to a random order, which is indicative of implicit learning. The AD patients showed a reversed pattern of results. Arguably, errors and time measures may reflect the involvement of separate processes, e.g., spatial and motor components, which could be differently affected in AD and PD.