This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing theresources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject andinvestigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source,and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed isfor the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator.We will study oculomotor control in recently diagnosed patients with Parkinson's Disease (PD), their asymptomatic siblings, and unrelated control individuals. Our initial test battery will be expanded to provide sensitive and quantitative measures of oculomotor and cognitive performance. Our hypothesis is that differences in oculomotor control between PD patients and control individuals will be present. Additionally, we wish to determine if subtle abnormalities exist in clinically normal siblings of PD patients. Such difference could be due to subclinical neurophysiological deficits related to vulnerability to PD, and thus serve as a biological marker for PD. The result of this study will allow us to more powerfully characterize the deficits in the early stages of PD, dissect the cognitive and oculomotor contribution to PD deficits and evaluate familial oculomotor control deficit as a possible biological marker for PD. As genes are identified for PD susceptibility, the DNA samples collected from these individuals can be used to correlate clinical findings with genetic mutation.
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