Gait improvement via rhythmic stimulation in Parkinson's disease is linked to rhythmic skills.

ABSTRACT: Training based on rhythmic auditory stimulation (RAS) can improve gait in patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease (IPD). Patients typically walk faster and exhibit greater stride length after RAS. However, this effect is highly variable among patients, with some exhibiting little or no response to the intervention. These individual differences may depend on patients' ability to synchronize their movements to a beat. To test this possibility, 14 IPD patients were submitted to RAS for four weeks, in which they walked to music with an embedded metronome. Before and after the training, patients' synchronization was assessed with auditory paced hand tapping and walking to auditory cues. Patients increased gait speed and stride length in non-cued gait after training. However, individual dif

SUBMITTER: Bella SD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5324039 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature