Height judgement and stair avoidance in patients with Parkinson’s Disease: effect of visual information

• Grant number: 15/00612-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: May 01, 2015
• End date: April 30, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Physical Education
• Principal Investigator: Lilian Teresa Bucken Gobbi
• Grantee: Nubia Ribeiro da Conceição
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Stair locomotion involves planning and adjustments of motor strategies, which requires integration of sensory and motor systems. Deficits in the integration of proprioceptive and sensory feedback have been observed in Parkinson's disease (PD), which may impair the walking in complex environment. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate: 1) the contribution of exproprioceptive visual information during step avoidance on different steps height in patients with PD; 2) the effect of both the disease on exproprioceptive judgment of step height and relationship between estimated step height and toe clearance during step avoidance in different steps height. Fifteen patients with PD and 15 neurologically healthy individuals will participate in the study. A stair of 4 steps will be used to analyze the perceptual judgment and step avoidance. It will be manipulated three different heights for the first step: 10 cm, 18 cm and 35 cm. For the perceptual judgment, the participants will look at the step, estimate its height verbally and elevate their foot according step height. Then, they will avoidance the different steps height under visual feedback and without visual feedback conditions. The parameters kinematics will be recorded thought OPTOTRAK Certus. The dependent variables will be: constant error of step estimation and foot elevation and toe clearance. The variables will be compared between conditions by ANOVAs with three factors and the relationship of parameters will be analyzed by Pearson correlation test.

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

DA CONCEICAO, NUBIA R.; TEIXEIRA-ARROYO, CLAUDIA; VITORIO, RODRIGO; ORCIOLI-SILVA, DIEGO; BERETTA, VICTOR S.; DE SOUSA, PRISCILA N.; GOBBI, LILIAN T. B.. Influence of Parkinson's Disease on Judging Stair Step Height: Exploratory Study. PERCEPTUAL AND MOTOR SKILLS, v. 126, n. 1, p. 106-118, FEB 2019. (15/00612-1)