The association between prefrontal cortex activity and turning behaviors in people with and without freezing of gait

Introduction: A hallmark of mobility disability in Parkinson's disease (PD) is the significant conscious attention required to balance and walk, suggesting that the basal ganglia plays an important role in motor automaticity. For example, automatic control of walking while performing a concurrent secondary task (e.g. talking) (dual-task: DT) is impaired in PD. Therefore, PD impairments likely increase demand on the prefrontal cortex (PFC) to execute motor tasks via attentional processes. Turning impairments often appear before gait impairments and elicit most Freezing of Gait (FoG) episodes [1].

Source: Gait and Posture - October 1, 2018 Category: Orthopaedics Authors: V. Belluscio, S. Stuart, E. Bergamini, G. Vannozzi, M. Mancini Source Type: research