A new study from Reichman University has found that a short, three-week digital training program, combined with the standard drug treatment for Parkinson’s disease, led to significant improvements in patients’ motor function and measurable changes in the brain’s motor circuits
The study, published in the journal npj Parkinson’s Disease , provides evidence that even relatively brief interventions can encourage the brain to learn and adapt through targeted digital training, improving motor function in people living with Parkinson’s disease. The research was led by Prof. Amir Amedi, head of the Baruch Ivcher Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Technology at Reichman University , in collaboration with the university’s Ruth and Meir Rosenthal Brain Imaging Center. The digital training program, DopApp, was developed by Remepy Health Ltd. under the leadership of neuroscientist Dr. Merav Catalogna in a collaborative effort between academia and industry .
The study included 32 individuals with Parkinson’s disease who were receiving standard pharmacological treatment. Participants were randomly assigned to either a training group or a control group. Over a three-week period, those in the training group completed a daily digital program that included spatial navigation tasks, cognitive exercises, motor rehabilitation, and motor training. One of the program’s core components involved navigating three-dimensional mazes. As the training progressed, visual input was gradually reduced, requiring participants to rely increasingly on memory and auditory cues .
The results showed that participants in the training group achieved clinically meaningful improvements in motor function , with an average improvement of approximately 6.4 points on the standard clinical scale used to assess the severity of Parkinson’s symptoms, compared with the control group. Participants also demonstrated improvements in fine motor control of the hands .
Alongside these clinical improvements, brain scans revealed that the training strengthened connectivity between brain regions responsible for motor control and induced localized changes in the neural circuits involved in movement. The researchers also found that participants who performed better on the navigation tasks experienced greater improvements in motor function .
According to the researchers, “These findings suggest that a short, targeted digital training program may help the brain ‘relearn’ and strengthen neural networks that have been impaired by the disease.” They added that although this is an early-stage study, it provides further evidence of the potential for digital tools to become an important component of Parkinson’s treatment and rehabilitation in the future .