Research

Visual dysfunction is a non-motor symptom observed in many neurodegenerative disorders, such as Parkinson’s Disease and Multiple Sclerosis. Deficits in visual processing affect fine movements and postural balance. Visuomotor skills gradually deteriorate even in the early stages of these diseases, but current clinical assessments are often unable to capture these changes. Thus, there is a critical need to improve our understanding of the neural mechanisms of visual processing and visuomotor performance in healthy adults and changes occurring in patients suffering from neurodegenerative disorders. Of particular interest, frontoparietal networks in the brain process visual information that is used for planning movements. These networks interact with the temporoparietal networks, which process visual information that is used for recognizing objects. In Parkinson’s Disease, loss of grey and white matter occurs in these cortical networks even during the early stages of the disease and this affects movement planning and execution. Our goal is to investigate how these structural changes occurring in the brain during neurodegenerative disorders affect visuomotor skills.