Sing for Your Saunter: Using Self-generated Rhythmic Cues to Enhance Gait in Parkinson's - Dementia Supplement

Detailed Summary

Older adults, and particularly those with Parkinson disease (PD), may experience walking difficulties that negatively impact their daily function and quality of life. People that have PD plus dementia are also likely to experience walking difficulties. This project will examine the impact of music and mentally singing on walking performance, with a goal of understanding what types of rhythmic cues are most helpful. Pilot work from the investigators suggests that imagined, mental singing (i.e., singing in head) while while walking helps people walk faster with greater stability, whereas walking to music also helps people walk faster but with reduced stability. In this study, the investigators will recruit people who have PD plus dementia. The investigators will compare walking while mentally singing and walking while listening to music, using personalized cues tailored to each person's walking performance. The investigators hypothesize temporal variability of gait will be lower in the mental singing and singing conditions compared to listening to music; and that mental singing, singing, and listening to music will elicit similar improvements in stride length.

Study Details

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Interventions