OBJECTIVE To investigate the progressively increasing external auditory cues during mobility training with persons with Parkinson's disease (PD). DESIGN Experimental. SETTING General community. PARTICIPANTS Convenience sample of persons with PD (N=12) who walked independently. INTERVENTIONS Gait training to external auditory cues was based on a participant's comfortable walking pace. Tr...

There is an ongoing debate about the reasons underlying gait transition in terrestrial locomotion. In bipedal locomotion, the 'compass gait', a reductionist model of inverted pendulum walking, predicts the boundaries of speed and step length within which walking is feasible. The stance of the compass gait is energetically optimal-at walking speeds-owing to the absence of leg compression/extensi...

Motor imagery and internal motor models have been deeply investigated in literature. It is well known that the development of motor imagery occurs during adolescence and it is limited in people affected by cerebral palsy. However, the roles of motor imagery and internal models in locomotion as well as their intertwine received poor attention. In this study we compared the performances of health...

Earlier observations had suggested that cockroaches might show multiple patterns of leg coordination, or gaits, but these were not followed by detailed behavioral or kinematic measurements that would allow a definite conclusion. We measured the walking speeds of cockroaches exploring a large arena and found that the body movements tended to cluster at one of two preferred speeds, either very sl...

[Purpose] The objective of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of pedometry and accelerometry in the measurement of the energy expenditures in Nordic walking and conventional walking as diagnostic parameters. [Subjects and Methods] The study included 20 female students (age, 24 ± 2.3 years). The study used three types of measuring devices, namely a heart rate monitor (Polar S610i), a Calt...

Over the past decades, the performance of the below-knee prosthesis has been significantly improved. However, below-knee amputees still experience many problems during locomotion. For example, they normally exhibit non-symmetric gait patterns, slower self-selected walking speeds, and higher gait metabolic rates compared to intact individuals. The objective of this project is to obtain both qual...

SUMMARY Violence towards others during sleepwalking is relatively uncommon, but can result in serious injury or even death. Much of the research in this field has focused on the forensic consequences of violence during sleepwalking without sufficient attention to an understanding of the risk factors for violence during sleepwalking and the development of prevention and interventions based on th...

An 'Information Centre' has recently been established by law which has the power to collect, collate and provide access to the medical information for all patients treated by the National Health Service in England, whether in hospitals or by General Practitioners. This so-called 'care.data' scheme has given rise to major and ongoing controversies. We will sketch the background of the scheme and...

We walk backward on a daily basis, such as when backing away from the kitchen sink or stepping back from a curb as a swiftly moving bus passes. This task may be particularly difficult for individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) who often fall as a result of moving or being perturbed in the backward direction. The aim of this study was to assess backward walking (BW) in individuals with PD. Bo...

During walking, variability in step parameters allows the body to adapt to changes in substrate or unexpected perturbations that may occur as the feet interface with the environment. Despite a rich literature describing biomechanical variability in step parameters, there are as yet no studies that consider variability at the body-environment interface. Here, we used pedobarographic statistical ...