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Sudden turn during walking is impaired in people with Parkinson’s disease

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Abstract

The present study compared kinematic strategies for making sudden directional changes during walking between patients with Parkinson’s disease (PwPD) and age-matched controls. Ten PwPD and 10 healthy elderly were visually cued to walk straight or to turn either 30° or 60° to the left or right, at the mid-point of a 9-m walkway. Three-dimensional kinematic data recorded: (1) the onset time of body segments in response to the turning cue, and (2) step width at the first ipsilateral foot contact (IFC1) marking the beginning of turn, the subsequent contralateral foot contact (CFC), and the second ipsilateral foot contact (IFC2) marking the completion of turn. For both 30° and 60° turns, PwPD had later onset times for lateral foot displacement, and larger time lags between the onset of body CoM and the lateral foot translation than healthy subjects (P < 0.05). Furthermore, PwPD had a significantly narrower step width than healthy subjects (P < 0.05). Despite these differences, PwPD and control subjects scaled up turning speed and amplitude similarly for 30° and 60° turns. Our findings suggested that PwPD manifested specific difficulty in modifying their ongoing motor program to switch their locomotion from straight line to sideway direction, but their ability to scale movement speed and amplitude appeared to be preserved.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge research grants given by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (A-PF27 and G-T924), Hong Kong Parkinson’s disease Association, staff from Community Rehabilitation networks, and all research personnel: Dr. Raymond Chung, YY Wong and Man Cheung for their assistance. Our special thanks to Dr. Fay Horak for her valuable comments on the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China

    Margaret K. Y. Mak & Christina Hui-Chan

  2. Department of Kinesiology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    Aftab Patla

Authors
  1. Margaret K. Y. Mak
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  2. Aftab Patla
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  3. Christina Hui-Chan
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Correspondence to Margaret K. Y. Mak.

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Mak, M.K.Y., Patla, A. & Hui-Chan, C. Sudden turn during walking is impaired in people with Parkinson’s disease. Exp Brain Res 190, 43–51 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-008-1446-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-008-1446-1

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