Reduced Anxiety and Depression and Improved Mood in Older Adults Living in Care Homes After Participating in Chair Yoga

© 2024 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Providing opportunities for older adults to engage in physical and mental activity is important to support healthy aging. The present preliminary study investigated the feasibility of accessible chair yoga for older adults in care homes. Chair yoga participants (n = 17) were assessed before and after attending twice weekly chair yoga sessions for 8 weeks, while control participants (n = 16) underwent the assessments only. Participant ages ranged from 80 to 101 years and included those living with mild to severe dementia. Anxiety and depression measured by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and negative affect measured by the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), improved in the chair yoga but not the control group. Balance confidence (Modified Falls Efficacy Scale) and Health-related Quality of Life (EQ-5D-3L) were unchanged. Chair yoga is a feasible activity for older care home residents, including those living with dementia, with the potential to improve mental well-being.Peer reviewe

Music and Metronomes Differentially Impact Motor Timing in People with and without Parkinson's Disease: Effects of Slow, Medium, and Fast Tempi on Entrainment and Synchronization Performances in Finger Tapping, Toe Tapping, and Stepping on the Spot Tasks

© 2019 Dawn Rose et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Introduction: Rhythmic Auditory Stimulation (RAS) has successfully helped regulate gait for people with Parkinson’s disease. However, the way in which different auditory cues and types of movements affect entrainment, synchronization and pacing stability has not been directly compared in different aged people with and without Parkinson's. Therefore, this study compared music and metronomes (cue types) in finger tapping, toe tapping and stepping on the spot tasks to explore the potential of RAS training for general use.Methods: Participants (aged 18-78 years) included people with Parkinson’s (n=30, Hoehn & Yahr Mean=1.78), Older (n=26), and Younger adult controls (n=36), as age may effect motor timing. Timed motor production was assessed using an extended synchronization-continuation task in cue type and movement conditions for slow, medium and fast tempi (81, 116 and 140 mean beats-per-minute respectively).Results: Analyses revealed main effects of cue and movement type but no between group interactions, suggesting no differences in motor timing between people with Parkinson's and controls. Music supported entrainment better than metronome in medium and fast tempi, and stepping on the spot enabled better entrainment and less asynchrony, as well as more stable pacing compared to tapping in medium and fast tempi. Age was not confirmed as a factor and no differences were observed in slow tempo.Conclusion: This is the first study to directly compare how different external auditory cues and movement types affect motor timing. The music and the stepping enabled participants to maintain entrainment once the external pacing cue ceased, suggesting endogenous mechanisms continued to regulate the movements. The superior performance of stepping on the spot suggests embodied entrainment can occur during continuous movement, and this may be related to emergent timing in tempi above 600 ms. These findings can be applied therapeutically to manage and improve adaptive behaviours for people with Parkinson’s.Peer reviewe

A general procedure to measure the pacing of body movements timed to music and metronome in younger and older adults

© The Author(s) 2021. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.Finger-tapping tasks are classically used to investigate sensorimotor synchronization in relation to neutral auditory cues, such as metronomes. However, music is more commonly associated with an entrained bodily response, such as toe tapping, or dancing. Here we report an experimental procedure that was designed to bridge the gap between timing and intervention studies by directly comparing the effects of metronome and musical cue types on motor timing abilities across the three naturalistic voluntary actions of finger tapping, toe tapping, and stepping on the spot as a simplified case of whole body movement. Both pacing cues were presented at slow, medium, and fast tempi. The findings suggested that the task of stepping on the spot enabled better timing performances than tapping both in younger and older adults (75+). Timing performances followed an inverse U shape with best performances observed in the medium tempi that were set close to the spontaneous motor tempo in each movement type. Finally, music provided an entrainment effect in addition to pace setting that enabled better motor timing and greater stability than classically reported using a metronome. By applying time-stamp analyses to kinetic data, we demonstrate that tapping and stepping engage different timing modes. This work details the importance of translational research for a better understanding of motor timing. It offers a simple procedure that strengthens the validity of applying academic work and contributes in knowledge towards a wide range of therapeutic interventions.Peer reviewe

Bases expert statement on the use of music for movement among people with Parkinson's

First published in The Sport and Exercise Scientist, February 2020, Issue 63. Published by the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences – www.bases.org.uk.Music is an artistic auditory stimulus that unfolds over time. It can prime specific actions and prompt engagement in physical activity as well as heighten motivation during motor tasks (Karageorghis, 2020). Contrastingly, it can be used to downregulate arousal to facilitate the transition from an active to a sedentary state or to ameliorate anxiety. In therapeutic applications, musical features such as rhythm, melody and harmony have been shown to elicit psychological and physiological changes (Thaut & Hoemberg, 2014). Parkinson’s is a degenerative neurological condition in which the loss of dopamine neurons results in impaired initiation and control of movement, with common symptoms including tremor, postural instability and gait disturbance. There are also non-motor effects that include apathy, anxiety and depression. Medication does not alleviate all manifestations of the condition and there is presently no known cure (Obeso et al., 2017). It is notable that people with Parkinson’s are estimated to be 30% less active than agematched peers (Ramaswamy et al., 2018). Nonetheless, evidence is emerging that a range of exercise-based and social activities that involve musical engagement can serve to address the common symptoms and enhance quality of life (Thaut & Hoemberg, 2014). This statement brings together an international interdisciplinary team to outline what is known about music-related applications for people with Parkinson’s, and to provide recommendations for exercise and health practitioners.Peer reviewe

Identification of genetic variants associated with Huntington's disease progression: a genome-wide association study

Background Huntington's disease is caused by a CAG repeat expansion in the huntingtin gene, HTT. Age at onset has been used as a quantitative phenotype in genetic analysis looking for Huntington's disease modifiers, but is hard to define and not always available. Therefore, we aimed to generate a novel measure of disease progression and to identify genetic markers associated with this progression measure. Methods We generated a progression score on the basis of principal component analysis of prospectively acquired longitudinal changes in motor, cognitive, and imaging measures in the 218 indivduals in the TRACK-HD cohort of Huntington's disease gene mutation carriers (data collected 2008–11). We generated a parallel progression score using data from 1773 previously genotyped participants from the European Huntington's Disease Network REGISTRY study of Huntington's disease mutation carriers (data collected 2003–13). We did a genome-wide association analyses in terms of progression for 216 TRACK-HD participants and 1773 REGISTRY participants, then a meta-analysis of these results was undertaken. Findings Longitudinal motor, cognitive, and imaging scores were correlated with each other in TRACK-HD participants, justifying use of a single, cross-domain measure of disease progression in both studies. The TRACK-HD and REGISTRY progression measures were correlated with each other (r=0·674), and with age at onset (TRACK-HD, r=0·315; REGISTRY, r=0·234). The meta-analysis of progression in TRACK-HD and REGISTRY gave a genome-wide significant signal (p=1·12 × 10−10) on chromosome 5 spanning three genes: MSH3, DHFR, and MTRNR2L2. The genes in this locus were associated with progression in TRACK-HD (MSH3 p=2·94 × 10−8 DHFR p=8·37 × 10−7 MTRNR2L2 p=2·15 × 10−9) and to a lesser extent in REGISTRY (MSH3 p=9·36 × 10−4 DHFR p=8·45 × 10−4 MTRNR2L2 p=1·20 × 10−3). The lead single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in TRACK-HD (rs557874766) was genome-wide significant in the meta-analysis (p=1·58 × 10−8), and encodes an aminoacid change (Pro67Ala) in MSH3. In TRACK-HD, each copy of the minor allele at this SNP was associated with a 0·4 units per year (95% CI 0·16–0·66) reduction in the rate of change of the Unified Huntington's Disease Rating Scale (UHDRS) Total Motor Score, and a reduction of 0·12 units per year (95% CI 0·06–0·18) in the rate of change of UHDRS Total Functional Capacity score. These associations remained significant after adjusting for age of onset. Interpretation The multidomain progression measure in TRACK-HD was associated with a functional variant that was genome-wide significant in our meta-analysis. The association in only 216 participants implies that the progression measure is a sensitive reflection of disease burden, that the effect size at this locus is large, or both. Knockout of Msh3 reduces somatic expansion in Huntington's disease mouse models, suggesting this mechanism as an area for future therapeutic investigation

Convalescent plasma in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised controlled, open-label, platform trial

SummaryBackground Azithromycin has been proposed as a treatment for COVID-19 on the basis of its immunomodulatoryactions. We aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of azithromycin in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19.Methods In this randomised, controlled, open-label, adaptive platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19Therapy [RECOVERY]), several possible treatments were compared with usual care in patients admitted to hospitalwith COVID-19 in the UK. The trial is underway at 176 hospitals in the UK. Eligible and consenting patients wererandomly allocated to either usual standard of care alone or usual standard of care plus azithromycin 500 mg once perday by mouth or intravenously for 10 days or until discharge (or allocation to one of the other RECOVERY treatmentgroups). Patients were assigned via web-based simple (unstratified) randomisation with allocation concealment andwere twice as likely to be randomly assigned to usual care than to any of the active treatment groups. Participants andlocal study staff were not masked to the allocated treatment, but all others involved in the trial were masked to theoutcome data during the trial. The primary outcome was 28-day all-cause mortality, assessed in the intention-to-treatpopulation. The trial is registered with ISRCTN, 50189673, and ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04381936.Findings Between April 7 and Nov 27, 2020, of 16 442 patients enrolled in the RECOVERY trial, 9433 (57%) wereeligible and 7763 were included in the assessment of azithromycin. The mean age of these study participants was65·3 years (SD 15·7) and approximately a third were women (2944 [38%] of 7763). 2582 patients were randomlyallocated to receive azithromycin and 5181 patients were randomly allocated to usual care alone. Overall,561 (22%) patients allocated to azithromycin and 1162 (22%) patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days(rate ratio 0·97, 95% CI 0·87–1·07; p=0·50). No significant difference was seen in duration of hospital stay (median10 days [IQR 5 to >28] vs 11 days [5 to >28]) or the proportion of patients discharged from hospital alive within 28 days(rate ratio 1·04, 95% CI 0·98–1·10; p=0·19). Among those not on invasive mechanical ventilation at baseline, nosignificant difference was seen in the proportion meeting the composite endpoint of invasive mechanical ventilationor death (risk ratio 0·95, 95% CI 0·87–1·03; p=0·24).Interpretation In patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19, azithromycin did not improve survival or otherprespecified clinical outcomes. Azithromycin use in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 should be restrictedto patients in whom there is a clear antimicrobial indication

Using online assessments to enhance student engagement with biological psychology

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permissionCoursework tasks were introduced for the teaching and assessment of biological psychology modules for cohorts of over 200 Psychology BSc students. Biological psychology is considered “hard” by many psychology students because of new neuroanatomical and pharmacological terms which can be a barrier to learning. Regular online assessments were introduced to encourage the habit of undertaking work related to the lectures each week, so enhancing engagement with the course. Coursework tasks were aligned to the module aims, including writing a glossary to build up familiarity with new terms and producing an electronic “leaflet” on a brain topic of the student’s choice. For the latter task students worked in small groups to encourage discussion and to reduce staff marking load. The best “leaflets” were made available online for all students to view for a competition. Online quizzes were particularly popular and were the most efficient method of delivering and marking weekly coursework. The multiple choice questions (MCQs) were devised to encourage students to review key points from the preceding lecture and provided practice for the MCQ component (50%) of the final exam. It is argued that MCQs suitably designed to probe key concepts can be used to assess deeper understanding, not just knowledge of facts. In particular, questions set to be answered in the student’s own time during the week following the lecture can be more complex, requiring further study around the lecture topic, than MCQs as used in a traditional test. Student comments on the online MCQs included: “... they make you search for the actual purpose of things...you get a better idea of how everything slots together”. Interestingly, performance on MCQs in exams correlated significantly with that on the written exam answers (r=0.657 and r=0.590 in two modules, p<0.01), suggesting both methods assessed similar underlying knowledge/ability

Effects of Popping for Parkinson's dance class on the mood of people with Parkinson's disease

© 2023 The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/Background/Aims Depression, low mood and apathy can affect people with Parkinson’s disease, impacting on quality of life. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of one Popping For Parkinson’s dance session on the mood of people with Parkinson’s disease. Methods A total of 33 people with Parkinson’s disease, with a mean age of 67.5 years (standard deviation 10.3 years), mean Parkinson’s level of 1.8 (standard deviation 1.6), took part in one Popping For Parkinson's dance class at four different locations: London (UK), Hatfield (UK), New York City (USA) and Turin (Italy). Participants’ mood was measured with the Profile of Mood States questionnaire at four time points: immediately before the dance class, immediately after the dance class, 24 hours after the dance class and 1 week after the dance class. Results Participants’ total mood score and the subscale score of vigour increased, while the subscales of tension, depression, and confusion decreased on the Profile of Mood States, significantly immediately after the dance intervention. However, at 24 hours and 1 week after the dance class, mood scores did not differ significantly compared with baseline measurements. The improvements in mood immediately after the dance class did not differ depending on sex, age, previous dance experience, the location of the dance class, stage of Parkinson’s disease, presence of tremor and deep brain stimulation treatment. Conclusions Participating in a Popping For Parkinson’s dance class boosts mood in the short term, and this improvement lasts less than 24 hours. This finding has implications for the provision of dance classes, suggesting that regular attendance may be necessary for sustained improvements. Further studies are needed to determine whether attending a series of Popping for Parkinson’s classes may have longer-term effects.Peer reviewe

Wrist-worn accelerometer measures of movement by people with Parkinson’s attending dance classes at the University of Hertfordshire.

Rebecca Hadley, Lucy Annett, Peter Lovatt, ‘Wrist-worn accelerometer measures of movement by people with Parkinson’s attending dance classes at the University of Hertfordshire’, poster presented at the Parkinson's UK Research Conference, Leeds, UK, 7-8 November, 2016.The present study investigated the feasibility of using wrist-worn accelerometers to quantify activity by people with Parkinson’s compared with age-matched and younger controls as they participated in a dance class. Background: Dance classes have been reported to improve functional mobility, mood and quality of life in people with Parkinson’s. However, it is unclear whether the amount of activity or other factors such as the social aspects of attending a dance class are important for any benefits. Accelerometers provide an objective way of quantifying the amount of movement made while dancing and in the following hours and days. Methods: People with Parkinson’s attending a weekly dance class at the University of Hertfordshire wore an accelerometer during the class and the following rest session. Partners/carers and younger adults attending the class also wore an accelerometer during the same two-hour period. Results: Data collected to date reveals accurate tracking by the accelerometers in that patterns of activity were very similar in each trio (Parkinson’s, non-Parkinson’s and younger controls) attending the same class. The total amount of activity during the dance class by people with Parkinson’s did not significantly differ from age-matched controls, although was significantly less than for younger controls. Conclusions: Wrist-worn accelerometers provide a feasible way of quantifying activity by people with Parkinson’s as they participate in dance classes. This will allow future studies to compare activity during dance and other types of exercise to investigate the relationship between activity per se and other psychological factors, such as social interaction and mood, to understand how these factors may combine in dance to deliver benefits for Parkinson’s.Non peer reviewe

Understanding rhythm perception, production and entertainment in relation to dance for people with Parkinson’s disease

Studies have shown that music and dance-based interventions can be of benefit to some people with Parkinson’s disease (PD), but not all (see e.g. Benoit et al., 2014; Lewis et al., 2014; Nombela et al., 2013). Why might this be? Research investigating sensorimotor synchronisation (SMS) in people with PD have shown mixed results in terms of variability and accuracy in comparison to controls (see Jones & Jahanshahi, 2014 for review). Perhaps the timing mechanisms affected by PD in the basal ganglia also affect beat-based rhythm perception for some, as suggested by Grahn & Brett (2007; 2009).Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio