Article

Brain regions important for controlling movement are also responsible for
rhythmic processing. In Parkinson disease (PD), defective internal timing within
the brain has been linked to impaired beat discrimination,
and may contribute to
a loss of ability to maintain a steady gait rhythm.
Less rhythmic gait is
inherently less efficient, and this may lead to gait impairment including reduced
speed, cadence, and stride length, as well as increased variability. While
external rhythmic auditory stimulation (e.g. a metronome beat) is
well-established as an effective tool to stabilize gait in PD, little is known
about whether self-generated cues such as singing have the same beneficial effect
on gait in PD. Thus, we compared gait patterns of 23 people with mild to moderate
PD under five cued conditions: uncued, music only, singing only, singing with
music, and a verbal dual-task condition. In our single-session study, singing
while walking did not significantly alter velocity, cadence, or stride length,
indicating that it was not excessively demanding for people with PD. In addition,
walking was less variable when singing than during other cued conditions. This
was further supported by the comparison between singing trials and a verbal
dual-task condition. In contrast to singing, the verbal dual-task negatively
affected gait performance. These findings suggest that singing holds promise as
an effective cueing technique that may be as good as or better than traditional
cueing techniques for improving gait among people with PD.
CI - Copyright (c) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Langue : ANGLAIS