None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
Difficulty performing more than one task at a time (dual tasking) is a common and disabling problem experienced by people with Parkinson disease (PD). If asked to perform another task when walking, people with PD have repeatedly shown markedly altered gait, such as taking shorter steps or walking more slowly. Currently there is uncertainty about whether clinicians should teach people with PD to avoid dual task performance or whether they should encourage them to practice dual-tasking with the hope that practice will lead to enhanced performance. This study will begin to investigate how to best retrain dual tasking by comparing two different ways to attend to the tasks trained.
Interventions
One twenty-minute session of training walking to improve step length whilst concurrently performing cognitive tasks will be undertaken. Subjects will be asked to walk 25m repeatedly whilst concurrently performing cognitive tasks such as counting or word generation. Subjects undergoing variable-priority training will be instructed to vary the degree of attention paid to step length and the cognitive tasks, between trials.
Sponsors
Dr Sandra Brauer
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Treatment
Masking
Blinded (masking used)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
21 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
Diagnosed with ideopathic Parkinson's Disease, be medically stable, score >23 on the Mini Mental Status Examination, demonstrate gait hypokinesia
Exclusion criteria
visual pathology, deafness, neurological conditions other than Parkinson's Disease, or musculoskeletal or cardiopulmonary conditions that affect the ability to safely walk repeatedly, dyskinesias that interfere with daily functioning,
Outcome results
None listed