Gait Pattern and Cognitive Performance During Treadmill Walking in Parkinson Disease

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Movement Disorders
• Rehabilitation Science

Background:

• Parkinson disease (PD) often leads to gait disturbances.
• Treadmill training is a common intervention to improve gait in PD patients.
• The underlying mechanisms for treadmill-induced gait improvements are not fully understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the role of attentional demands in gait improvements observed in Parkinson disease patients during treadmill walking.
• To determine if dual-tasking affects gait and cognitive performance differently on a treadmill versus overground.

Main Methods:

• Nineteen individuals with idiopathic PD and 19 healthy controls participated.
• Gait and cognitive performance were assessed during single-task (walking) and dual-task (walking with cognitive task) conditions.
• Walking occurred both overground and on a treadmill.

Main Results:

• Parkinson disease patients exhibited reduced gait variability when walking on a treadmill compared to overground.
• This gait improvement on the treadmill was not negatively affected by the concurrent cognitive task.
• Cognitive performance did not differ significantly between treadmill and overground walking conditions.

Conclusions:

• The findings do not support the hypothesis that increased attentional resource allocation explains gait improvements in Parkinson disease patients on a treadmill.
• Alternative mechanisms may be responsible for the benefits of treadmill training on gait in PD.