The pedunculopontine nucleus, a component of the reticular formation, is topographically organized in animal models and implicated in locomotor control. In Parkinson's disease, pedunculopontine nucleus stimulation is an emerging treatment for gait freezing. Local field potentials recorded from pedunculopontine nucleus electrodes in such patients have demonstrated oscillations in the alpha and b...

BACKGROUND Functional independence with aging is an important goal for individuals and society. Simple prognostic indicators can inform health promotion and care planning, but evidence is limited by heterogeneity in measures of function. METHODS We performed a pooled analysis of data from seven studies of 27,220 community-dwelling older adults aged 65 or older with baseline gait speed, follow...

BACKGROUND Restoration of gait is an important goal of rehabilitation after hip fracture. Numerous spatial and temporal gait variables have been reported in the literature, but beyond gait speed, there is little agreement on which gait variables should be reported and which are redundant in describing gait recovery following hip fracture. The aims of this study were to identify distinct domains...

Though a legged robot has high terrain adaptability as compared with a wheeled vehicle, its moving speed is considerably low in general. For attaining a high moving speed with a legged robot, a dynamically stable gait, such as running for a biped robot and a trot gait or a bound gait for a quadruped robot, is a promising solution. However, the energy efficiency of the dynamically stable gait is...

OBJECTIVES To investigate the effects of exercise on gait speed, when tested using walking aids and without, and whether effects differed according to amount of support in the test. DESIGN A cluster-randomized controlled trial. SETTING The Umeå Dementia and Exercise (UMDEX) study was set in 16 nursing homes in Umeå, Sweden. PARTICIPANTS One hundred forty-one women and 45 men (mean age 85 ...

BACKGROUND Surgical risk scores do not include frailty assessments (eg, gait speed), which are of particular importance for patients with severe aortic stenosis considering transcatheter aortic valve replacement. METHODS AND RESULTS We assessed the association of 5-m gait speed with outcomes in a cohort of 8039 patients who underwent transcatheter aortic valve replacement (November 2011-June ...

Walking speed is one marker of health in adulthood. Although personality may contribute to gait speed, there is limited longitudinal data on this association. Thus, the present study examined whether personality traits are prospectively associated with walking speed among middle aged and older adults. Participants were adults aged from 25 to 100 years old (N > 15,000) drawn from the Wisconsin L...

Energy storage and return (ESR) feet have long been assumed to promote metabolically efficient amputee gait. However, despite being prescribed for approximately 30 yr, there is limited evidence that they achieve this desired function. Here, we report a meta-analysis of data from 10 studies that met our selection criteria to determine whether amputee walking with ESR feet is more efficient than ...

Walking speed is a measure of gait performance after a stroke and a predictor of community ambulatory competence. Although gait decrements during a cognitive or motor task after stroke are well-documented, the differential effects of motor and cognitive tasks on the comfortable and maximum walking speeds of individuals with chronic stroke have not been investigated. This study aimed to compare ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Understanding the nature and extent of fluctuations in spatial and temporal variables of gait (eg, speed, stride length [SL], stride time [ST]) over the course of the levodopa (L-dopa) cycle of individuals with advanced Parkinson disease (PD) is important in order to assess patients and examine the effectiveness of interventions. The purpose of this study was to determine...