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Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that affects the motor system, but is also associated with sensory impairments, such as anosmia or proprioceptive dysfunction. Recent research on healthy individuals shows that a sensorimotor training which challenges the proprioceptive system improves both proprioceptive and motor function. However, it is unknown whether proprioceptive function can be enhanced in PD. It is further unclear, if an improved proprioceptive-motor function after learning leads to general improvements in motor performance. That is, the extent of transfer to other motor tasks is unknown. To fill this knowledge gap, this study employed a robot-aided visuo-proprioceptive motor training to people with PD with the following objectives: First, to identify whether proprioceptive function in Parkinson’s disease (PD) can be enhanced by a visuo-proprioceptive training that emphasizes precise, small amplitude continuous wrist movements. Second, to determine if proprioceptive improvements after training are associated with improvements in an untrained discrete wrist movement task, i.e. demonstrating a sensorimotor transfer within the same joint degree of freedom. Third, to identify if the training transferred to improvements in a functional writing task that relied on multi-joint wrist-hand motion, i.e. showing a sensorimotor transfer for additional joint degrees of freedom.

13 participants presenting with mild to moderate PD were tested in their ON medication state. Training involved tilting a virtual table projected on a screen with the aim to position a virtual ball on a target by making continuous and precise small …