Cognitive dual-task, obstacle circumvention during walking and asymmetry: effects on motor and visual strategies in older people with Parkinson disease

Abstract

Older people with Parkinson's disease (PD) show deficits in cortical and subcortical areas, which to impair the planning and execution of motor actions. Repetitive, simultaneous and sequential movements are mainly affected, especially when concomitant cognitive task (dual-task) is performed during locomotion. More complex locomotor tasks, such as obstacle circumvention during walking, seem to evidence these deficits and increase the asymmetry this population. Therefore, the aims of this study are: a) to analyze the motor and visual strategy on obstacle circumvention during walking with cognitive dual-task in older people with DP and neurologically healthy individuals; b) to verify the effect of cognitive dual-task on asymmetry/symmetry of the obstacle circumvention during walking in older people with DP. Two studies will be developed to answer the questions of this project. Fifteen individuals with DP and 15 neurologically healthy individuals will participate in the study. Participants will perform the task to walk, in self-selected speed, with obstacle circumvention, which will be positioned at half distance that the participant will cover (10 m). Five trials of the following conditions will be performed: unobstructed walking with and without cognitive dual-task and walk with obstacle circumvention with and without cognitive dual-task. In tasks with obstacle circumvention, participants will perform five trials for each side. The motor (Vicon Motion System) and visual parameters (ASL, Eye Tracking Mobile System) of the conditions of interest, as well the variability of these parameters, will be compared through ANOVAs according to the independent variables of the each study.