URI Biomedical Engineering Professor Awarded NSF Grant for Research on Visual Hallucinations in Parkinson’s Disease Using Virtual Reality

University of Rhode Island biomedical engineering associate professor Yalda Shahriari has been awarded a significant grant from the National Science Foundation for groundbreaking research on visual hallucinations in Parkinson’s disease patients. The three-year, $463,693 grant will fund Shahriari’s proposal titled “Integrated framework for recording and decoding multimodal neural associations of visual hallucinations and motor functions in Parkinson’s disease,” which will utilize immersive virtual reality technology to study the neural mechanisms behind hallucinations.

Parkinson’s disease is a debilitating condition that affects both mobility and cognitive function, with visual hallucinations being a common symptom. Shahriari’s research aims to fill a crucial gap in understanding the neural interactions that underlie visual hallucinations and their relationship with motor functions in Parkinson’s patients.

Using a novel dynamic multimodal framework in a controlled virtual reality setting, Shahriari and her team will explore the complex neural dynamics involved in visual perception and motor execution. Participants will engage in tasks that require both visual recognition and motor responses, allowing researchers to monitor brain activity and motor function simultaneously.

Collaborating with experts in neurology and machine learning, Shahriari hopes to identify neural markers of cognition in Parkinson’s disease that could lead to early detection of visual hallucinations. Early detection is crucial as hallucinations can precede motor symptoms by up to 10 years and may indicate the development of serious conditions.

This innovative research has the potential to revolutionize the diagnosis and monitoring of Parkinson’s disease, providing valuable insights into the neural mechanisms behind visual hallucinations and their impact on motor function.