Parkinson’s disease and the processing of haptic information

brain-journal-coverIn an international collaboration with colleagues from the Italian Institute of Technology and the Department of Neurology at the University of Genoa, Italy we investigated how Parkinson’s disease alters haptic perception. Our research suggests that the disease accelerates age-related decline in haptic perception by altering somatosensory integration – a neural mechanism that combines sensory information from the many receptors of the skin and muscles. That is, perception as well as movement is affected by the disease. The results of the study appear in the journal Brain.