Sensory cueing effects on maximal speed gait initiation in persons with Parkinson's disease and healthy elders

Influence of temporal pressure constraint on the biomechanical organization of gait initiation made with or without an obstacle to clear

“…when participants initiate the task only when they feel ready (referred to as a "self-initiated condition"). A similar effect of temporal pressure has been reported for tasks involving leg movements such as leg flexion from the erect posture (Yiou et al 2012bHussein et al 2013) or gait initiation (Dibble et al 2004;Delval et al 2005;Wang et al 2006). During rapid leg flexion from the erect posture, this shortening of APA duration in the condition with high temporal pressure is compensated by an increase in the anticipatory centre-of-pressure shift towards the swing-leg side so that participants can displace their centre of mass towards the stance-leg side more rapidly (Yiou et al 2012bHussein et al 2013), maintaining stability in the final unipodal posture.…”

“…This increase was, however, not completely sufficient to allow participants to reach equivalent motor performance as in the self-initiated condition. It is noteworthy that the speed instruction provided in this study was to step "rapidly" and not "as quickly as possible" as in previous studies in the literature (Dibble et al 2004;Wang et al 2006), which may have masked the true potential of adaptation of APA to temporal pressure. Indeed, the participants may not have developed their maximal effort to reach equivalent motor performance.…”

Gait initiation in older adults with postural instability

“…Previous studies have reported that the displacement of the COP towards the swing limb is greater in healthy age matched older adults (ranging: 2.9-4.5 cm) compared to individuals with PD (1.8-2.5 cm) (Halliday et al, 1998, Dibble et al, 2004, Martin et al, 2002. In the present study, contrary to our original hypothesis, the COP displaced significantly greater towards the swing limb in the PD compared to the adults transitioning to frailty (3.7cm vs.2.5 cm, respectively).…”

“…Cross sectional analysis of gait initiation has revealed that with advancing age and disability there is a reduction in the magnitude of the posterior COP displacement during the postural phase (S1 and into S2) (Martin et al, 2002, Patchay et al, 2002, Hass et al, 2004, Halliday et al, 1998, Gantchev et al, 1996, Dibble et al, 2004. While both groups produced COP movements that were smaller and possessed reduced velocity than those previously reported for healthy older adults, the individuals transitioning to frailty shifted their COP backwards significantly more than the patients with PD (3.2 cm versus a 2.7 cm) despite being older.…”

Motor learning of hands with auditory cue in patients with Parkinson’s disease

“…We conclude that the process of motor reorganization in patients with Parkinson's disease does not differ from that of normal subjects. In addition, rhythmic sounds may be an effective rehabilitation tool for improving gait disorder (Dibble et al, 2004) and motor performance in PD patients who experience the freezing phenomena. Table2.…”