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Session: Neurological disorders
Session starts: Thursday 24 January, 13:30
Presentation starts: 14:00
Room: Lecture room 536

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Janne Heijs ()
Sabine Janssen ()
Ciska Heida ()
Richard van Wezel ()

Abstract:
Freezing of gait (FOG), “an episodic reduction of forward progression of the feet despite the intention to walk”, is frequently seen in advanced stages of Parkinson’s disease (PD). The gait pattern of persons with PD experiencing FOG (PD-FOG) is affected, causing balance disturbances and falls. In contrast to dual-tasks, external rhythmic cues are found to be effective in continuation of gait and reducing the number of FOG-episodes, which may be due to increasing attention to walking. FOG is experienced most in the domestic environment, where tasks are often performed simultaneously. This study examines the influence of external visual cues during dual-task performance on the gait pattern and FOG-severity in PD-FOG and healthy controls. 20 individuals with PD experiencing freezing at least twice a day (PD-FOG), and 15 age-matched healthy controls (HC) were included for participation. Participants were instructed to walk along a 30m-long corridor. The dual-task used in this study, the Adjusted Auditory Stoop (AAS)-task, is a new variant of the auditory Stroop task, intended to evoke FOG. The visual cues (VC) were transverse lines on the floor. Four conditions were measured: (I) normal gait without AAS-task and VC (AAS-/VC-), (II) gait during the AAS-task, without VC (AAS+/VC-), (III) gait without AAS-task, with VC (AAS-/VC+), and (IV) gait during the AAS-task, with VC (AAS+/VC+). Inertial Measurements Units, consisting of gyroscopes, magnetometers and accelerometers, recorded body movements during the experiment that are used for calculation of gait parameters in Matlab. FOG was analysed individually by two experienced clinicians using video recordings. Preliminary results show a decreased cadence, velocity and stride length, and an increased stride time and stride length -and time variability for AAS+/VC- compared to AAS-/VC- in both PD-FOGs and HCs (p<0.05). In PD-FOG a decreased cadence and increased stride length, stride time and stride time variability was seen for AAS-/VC+ compared to AAS-/VC- (p<0.05). In HCs a decreased velocity and cadence, and an increased stride time was seen in for AAS-/VC+ compared to AAS-/VC- (p<0.05). From these preliminary results we conclude that VC and the AAS-task both have an influence on the gait pattern in PD-FOG and HC.