Targeting Apathy With Music in Parkinson's Disease
Trial statusRecruiting
Trial phaseNot applicable
Trial typeInterventional
Biological sexAll
Age40-85
SponsorUniversity of British Columbia
About this trial
Parkinson's Disease (PD) is often accompanied by non-motor symptoms that make treatment more difficult. One such symptom is apathy (lack of motivation and emotion). There are no treatments for apathy in PD, and this remains a major unmet need in PD patients. One possible way to target apathy in PD patients is listening to music, which has been shown to help improve apathy in older adults. Little work has explored the mechanism in which music targets apathy. Thus, the goal of this study is to understand how music listening can impact the brain towards decreasing apathy in PD patients.
Eligibility criteria
This trial does not accept healthy volunteersQualifiers
None
Disqualifiers
Participants with atypical Parkinsonism (eg. Progressive supranuclear palsy, multiple system atrophy, drug induced, etc.)
Epilepsy
Other neurological disease/complications (eg. myopathy, stroke, brain lesion, MS)
Significant cognitive impairment (MoCa <21)
Trial design
Design model
Parallel
Treatments tested in this trial
Music listening
Other interventionThis intervention involves listening to participant-selected music that they have evaluated as rewarding/motivating. YouTube Music will be used to build both personalized music and podcast interventions.
Podcast listening
Other interventionThis intervention involves listening to participant-selected podcasts of neutral content. YouTube Music will be used to build both personalized music and podcast interventions.
Treatment groups
50 Participants
are divided into 2 treatment groupsGroup A: Parkinson's Disease with apathy - Music-listeningExperimental treatment 1 intervention
Group B: Parkinson's Disease with apathy - Podcast-listeningExperimental treatment 1 intervention
Trial outcomes
Primary outcomes
1
Change in seed-based functional connectivity between auditory, reward, and motor areas (implicated in musical reward processing) during a music-listening task, before and after an 8-week audio-based intervention
fMRI - task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging
Time frame
8 weeks2
Change in seed-based functional connectivity between auditory, reward, and motor areas (implicated in musical reward processing) at rest, before and after an 8-week audio-based intervention
rsfMRI - resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging
Time frame
8 weeks3
Change in univariate whole-brain analysis at rest before and after an 8-week audio-based intervention
rsfMRI - resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging; observing activity across the brain and in specific regions of interest (ROIs), including reward, auditory, and motor areas
Time frame
8 weeks4
Change in univariate whole-brain analysis during a music listening task before and after an 8-week audio-based intervention
fMRI - task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging; observing activity across the brain and in specific regions of interest (ROIs), including reward, auditory, and motor areas
Time frame
8 weeksSecondary outcomes
1
Clinical assessment for Quality of Life before and after an 8-week audio-based intervention - Quality of Life Scale (QOLS); observing if the intervention improves QoL measures
Quality of Life Scale (QOLS)
Time frame
8 weeks2
White and grey matter distribution
T1-weighted magnetic resonance image (MRI)
Time frame
8 weeksOther outcomes
1
Clinical assessment for overall cognition - Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA)
The MoCA is a researcher-administered 30-item assessment covering 8 aspects of cognition: visuospatial/executive, naming, memory, attention, language, abstraction, delayed recall, and orientation. Scores range from 0-30. Higher scores indicate better cognition; lower scores indicate poorer cognition.
Time frame
0 weeks (baseline)2
Clinical assessment for depressive symptoms (not diagnostic) - Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI)
The BDI is a self reported 21-question multiple-choice self-report inventory on a scale from 0-3. Scores range from 0-63. Higher scores indicate higher levels of depression; scores over 40 are considered as extreme depression. It will be used as a screening tool to observe any overlap between apathy and depression.
Time frame
0 weeks (baseline)3
Validated assessment of musical perception (contour subtest) - Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia (MBEA);
The Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia (MBEA) measures level of general music perception for universal musical structures. This will be used to rule out any non-effects of the music intervention due to a deficit in musical perception abilities; the contour subtest will be used to evaluate this.
Time frame
0 weeks (baseline)4
Clinical assessment of overall reward/pleasure sensitivity - Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale (SHAPS)
The SHAPS will be used to compare with BMRQ to isolate for overall anhedonia/apathy versus music-specific apathy (Loui and Belfi, 2020). Higher scores correlate with higher apathy/less pleasure.
Time frame
0 weeks (baseline)Sponsors and contacts
Click on the lead sponsor to view all of their trials.
University of British Columbia
Lead sponsor
Northeastern University
Collaborator
Source ClinicalTrials.gov