Parkinson's disease and segmental coordination during modified figure of eight walking turning task

2016

Turning while walking is problematic for individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD). We hypothesized there would be instability and turning difficulty for the PD subjects while performing a complex motor skill task of the modified figure of eight (MFE) walking task. There were 26 subjects (10 males and 16 females) with clinical diagnosis of “idiopathic” PD and undergoing L-dopa treatment participating in this study. The PD subjects performed the clinical balance modified figure of eight (MFE) test. The 3-D positions of the head, trunk and pelvis were recorded and analyzed. The angular displacement and angular velocity of the head, trunk and pelvis were calculated. Counter-clockwise and clock…