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Learning a high‐precision locomotor task in patients with Parkinson's disease
Author(s) -
van Hedel Hubertus J.A.,
Waldvogel Daniel,
Dietz Volker
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
movement disorders
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.352
H-Index - 198
eISSN - 1531-8257
pISSN - 0885-3185
DOI - 10.1002/mds.20710
Subject(s) - physical medicine and rehabilitation , task (project management) , parkinson's disease , treadmill , medicine , psychology , audiology , physical therapy , disease , management , economics
We evaluated the acquisition and performance of a high‐precision locomotor task in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and healthy subjects. All subjects walked on a treadmill and had to step repetitively as low as possible over an obstacle without touching it. During blocks 1 and 2, the subjects had full vision and received additional acoustic warning and feedback signals. During block 3, vision became restricted. Changes in foot clearance and the number of obstacle hits were evaluated. Initially, PD patients performed poorer and improved foot clearance slower. After task repetition, the groups performed similarly. Restricting vision deteriorated performance in both groups. The similar performance of PD patients after task repetition might indicate that adequate training could improve adaptive locomotor behavior in PD patients. © 2005 Movement Disorder Society