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Related Experiment Videos

Avoiding Virtual Obstacles During Treadmill Gait in Parkinson's Disease.

Chiahao Lu1, Emily Twedell1, Reem Elbasher1

  • 1Department of Neurology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States.

Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience
|April 27, 2019
PubMed
Summary

Parkinson's disease patients and older adults exhibit slower obstacle avoidance during walking. This impaired gait adaptability may increase fall risk due to difficulties in processing information and modifying movements.

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Biomechanics
  • Gerontology

Background:

  • Falls are a significant concern, often caused by tripping over obstacles during gait.
  • Effective obstacle avoidance relies on timely modifications to ongoing movement patterns.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate the response time for virtual obstacle avoidance in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients compared to controls.
  • To investigate the influence of age and PD on the ability to adapt gait for obstacle clearance.

Main Methods:

  • A virtual obstacle avoidance task was used with visually cued treadmill walking.
  • Participants (26 PD patients, 26 controls) stepped on virtual 'stepping stones' that unpredictably turned into obstacles.
  • Response time to avoid obstacles was measured, controlling for individual walking speed and stride length.
Keywords:
Parkinson’s diseaseadaptive gaitobstacle avoidancepostural controltreadmill

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Main Results:

  • Successful obstacle avoidance was strongly dependent on the timing of obstacle appearance.
  • Older age correlated positively with increased obstacle avoidance time.
  • Parkinson's disease patients required significantly more time than controls to avoid obstacles, even after accounting for age.

Conclusions:

  • Slower gait adaptability in obstacle avoidance is evident in both elderly individuals and Parkinson's disease patients.
  • This reduced ability to adjust gait may contribute to a higher risk of falls in these populations.
  • Potential underlying mechanisms include impaired motor planning, execution, or response inhibition.