Visual function during gait in Parkinson’s disease (version 1)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Visual function during gait in Parkinson’s disease: impact of cognitive phenotype and response to visual cues
IRAS ID
125425
Contact name
Lynn Rochester
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Research and Development
Research summary
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is associated with problems with gait such as veering difficulty turning, an inability to perceive doorways or obstacles, and negotiate uneven terrain. Gait problems, especially veering, may be exacerbated by visuospatial dysfunction which predisposes to falls, freezing and festination of gait. Visuospatial dysfunction is common in PD and likely involves peripheral features (e.g. contrast sensitivity) as well as central cognitive mechanisms (e.g. attention).
Central neuro-degeneration in PD, PD dementia, and dementia with Lewy Bodies may influence visual function, as impaired visual sampling has been reported in these conditions. Visual sampling is measured via saccadic (fast eye movement) activity, as saccades are the mechanisms through which we orientate and explore our movement. The use of objective devices to reliably measure saccades is important to detect disease related eye movement changes. Emerging visuomotor research has measured visual sampling in PR using devices such as electrooculography and infra-red eye tracking, revealing reduced amplitude, speed and frequency of saccades during various tasks.
Despite recent increases in visuomotor research it remains unclear how PD influences visual sampling of the environment during gait and the influence of attentional and cognitive deficits. Our recent work demonstrated that people with PD sample their environment less frequently than controls, despite a slower gait. Saccadic timing was unchanged in response to environmental cues. Despite this, visual cues are currently used to ameliorate gait disturbance resistant to dopaminergic medication, such as freezing. However, response is selective and mechanisms remain unclear. Cognitive phenotype is likely of importance, with cue response potentially influenced by cognitive or attentional control.
This study aims to examine the influence of cognitive phenotype or visuomotor control during gait in PD. A second aim is to investigate the effect of a visual cue on gait and visual sampling.REC name
North East - Newcastle & North Tyneside 1 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/NE/0128
Date of REC Opinion
6 Jun 2013
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion