# Neurophysiological Biomarkers of Movement Facilitation in Parkinson’s Disease

> **NIH NIH K23** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES · 2022 · $242,055

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
 A promising strategy to improve neuromodulation therapies (e.g. deep brain stimulation) in Parkinson’s
Disease (PD) is to develop stimulation paradigms that target specific neural signals. Most previous work has
aimed to identify and reduce pathologic signals. An unexplored alternative approach is to identify and enhance
neural signals that promote movement. Several scenarios known to improve movement in PD patients are the
presence of visual movement targets, rhythmic auditory stimuli, and motivational incentives. The goal of this
proposal is to capitalize on these scenarios to identify biomarkers of movement facilitation that may serve as
targets for future neuromodulation therapies. This approach has potential to provide novel therapies for
symptoms refractory to current treatments, such as freezing of gait. Previous work examining neural
mechanisms of movement facilitation in PD have yielded inconsistent results. This may be due to a failure to
account for well-known heterogeneity in behavioral benefits across PD patients and the assumption that
different cueing phenomena exert motor benefits through a single neural mechanism. The studies proposed
here test the overarching hypothesis that 3 different types of cues (visual targets, rhythmic auditory stimuli and
reward incentives) facilitate movement through distinct neuroanatomic circuits and electrophysiological
mechanisms, by leveraging known variability in behavioral cueing benefits across patients. Aim 1 is to
demonstrate behavioral dissociations between the 3 forms of movement facilitation within patients and relate
variability in cueing benefits to integrity of dissociable neuroanatomic circuits as measured by resting state and
diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Aim 2 is to characterize the electrophysiological correlates
of behavioral benefits for the different cue types using electroencephalography (EEG) and intraoperative
electrophysiological recordings obtained during implantation of deep brain stimulator in the globus pallidus
internus. This work will augment my prior skills in task fMRI, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and
electrophysiology by extending training in multiple modalities (high density EEG, resting state fMRI, DTI); build
my analytic skills in advanced multivariate statistics; and advance my expertise in PD motor physiology. My
mentorship team comprises experts in PD neurophysiology and neuromodulation therapies, and non-invasive
studies of inter-individual differences in motor neurophysiology. Coursework in multivariate statistics and
seminars in advanced EEG and neuroimaging applications will further my development. The environment at
UCLA has a rich interdisciplinary neuroimaging community, state-of-the-art image acquisition facilities including
Ahmanson-Lovelace Brian Mapping Center and Staglin Center for Cognitive Neuroscience and a renowned
clinical Movement Disorders Division. The career development plan forges a path to ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10478191
- **Project number:** 5K23NS119568-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES
- **Principal Investigator:** Kathryn Amy Cross
- **Activity code:** K23 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $242,055
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-09-01 → 2026-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10478191

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10478191, Neurophysiological Biomarkers of Movement Facilitation in Parkinson’s Disease (5K23NS119568-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10478191. Licensed CC0.

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