Motor planning stage of gait initiation: effects of aging, Parkinson's disease, and associations with cognitive function.

ABSTRACT: The response to a request to walk involves a motor planning phase followed by an execution phase. The initial phase of gait initiation, specifically the time to anticipatory postural adjustment (APA), can be viewed as a form of reaction time. However, it is not clear how to characterize the cognitive processes involved in this stage. To address this question, time-to-APA, simple and complex upper limb visuomotor reaction time (SRT, CRT), cognitive, and motor performance were evaluated in 27 people with Parkinson's disease (PD), 31 older adults (OA), and 34 young adults (YA). Our results showed that time-to-APA was significantly longer than SRT in all three groups (p < 0.001), indicating a more complex cognitive process. In YA, time-to-APA was significantly shorter than CRT (p < 0.001). In

SUBMITTER: Shaham G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12394281 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature