Ocular microtremor (OMT) is a fixational eye movement that cannot be seen with the naked eye but is always present, even when the eye appears motionless/still. The link between OMT and brain function provides a strong rationale for investigation as there lies potential for its use as a biomarker in populations with neurological impairments. OMT frequency is typically 70-80Hz in healthy adults and research suggests that this will be reduced in those with neurological disease such as Parkinson's Disease (PD).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: There is currently no pharmacological treatment for visuo-cognitive impairments in Parkinson's disease. Alternative strategies are needed to address these non-motor symptoms given their impact on quality of life. Novel technologies have potential to deliver multimodal rehabilitation of visuo-cognitive dysfunction, but more research is required to determine their feasibility in Parkinson's.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRunning biomechanics have traditionally been analysed in laboratory settings, but this may not reflect natural running gait. Wearable technology has the potential to enable precise monitoring of running gait beyond the laboratory. This study aimed to evaluate the analytical validity and intra-session reliability of temporal running gait outcomes measured by the ViMove2 wearable system in healthy adults.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis review examined literature that has examined mobility in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) using digital technology. Specifically, the review focussed on: (a) digital mobility measurement in PAH; (b) commonly reported mobility outcomes in PAH; (c) PAH specific impact on mobility outcomes; and (d) recommendations concerning protocols for mobility measurement in PAH. PubMed, Scopus, and Medline databases were searched.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFContemporary research to better understand free-living fall risk assessment in Parkinson's disease (PD) often relies on the use of wearable inertial-based measurement units (IMUs) to quantify useful temporal and spatial gait characteristics (e.g., step time, step length).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFalls are a major concern for people with Parkinson's disease (PwPD), but accurately assessing real-world fall risk beyond the clinic is challenging. Contemporary technologies could enable the capture of objective and high-resolution data to better inform fall risk through measurement of everyday factors (e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeurorehabil Neural Repair
September 2024
Background: Walking abnormalities in people with Parkinson's disease (PD) are characterized by a shift in locomotor control from healthy automaticity to compensatory, executive control, mainly located in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Although PFC activity during walking increases in people with PD, the time course of PFC activity during walking and its relationship to clinical or gait characteristics is unknown.
Objective: To identify the time course of PFC activity during walking in people with PD.
Background: Falls are common in a range of clinical cohorts, where routine risk assessment often comprises subjective visual observation only. Typically, observational assessment involves evaluation of an individual's gait during scripted walking protocols within a lab to identify deficits that potentially increase fall risk, but subtle deficits may not be (readily) observable. Therefore, objective approaches (e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective Vestibular/ocular deficits occur with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). The vestibular/ocular motor screening (VOMS) tool is used to assess individuals post-mTBI, which primarily relies upon subjective self-reported symptoms. Instrumenting the VOMS (iVOMS) with technology may allow for more objective assessment post-mTBI, which reflects actual task performance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGait is impaired in musculoskeletal conditions, such as knee arthropathy. Gait analysis is used in clinical practice to inform diagnosis and monitor disease progression or intervention response. However, clinical gait analysis relies on subjective visual observation of walking as objective gait analysis has not been possible within clinical settings due to the expensive equipment, large-scale facilities, and highly trained staff required.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Concussions result in transient symptoms stemming from a cortical metabolic energy crisis. Though this metabolic energy crisis typically resolves in a month, symptoms can persist for years. The symptomatic period is associated with gait dysfunction, the cortical underpinnings of which are poorly understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWearable inertial measurement units (IMUs) are being used to quantify gait characteristics that are associated with increased fall risk, but the current limitation is the lack of contextual information that would clarify IMU data. Use of wearable video-based cameras would provide a comprehensive understanding of an individual's habitual fall risk, adding context to clarify abnormal IMU data. Generally, there is taboo when suggesting the use of wearable cameras to capture real-world video, clinical and patient apprehension due to ethical and privacy concerns.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGraft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is a serious complication of otherwise curative allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplants. Chronic GVHD induces pathological changes in peripheral organs as well as the brain and is a frequent cause of late morbidity and death after bone-marrow transplantation. In the periphery, bone-marrow-derived macrophages are key drivers of pathology, but recent evidence suggests that these cells also infiltrate into cGVHD-affected brains.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF. Gait assessments have traditionally been analysed in laboratory settings, but this may not reflect natural gait. Wearable technology may offer an alternative due to its versatility.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Visual cues can improve gait in Parkinson's disease (PD), including those experiencing freezing of gait (FOG). However, responses are variable and underpinning mechanisms remain unclear. Visuo-cognitive processing (measured through visual exploration) has been implicated in cue response, but this has not been comprehensively examined.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFQuantitative running gait analysis is an important tool that provides beneficial outcomes to injury risk/recovery or performance assessment. Wearable devices have allowed running gait to be evaluated in any environment (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOcular microtremor (OMT) is the smallest of three involuntary fixational micro eye movements, which has led to it being under researched in comparison. The link between OMT and brain function generates a strong rationale for further study as there is potential for its use as a biomarker in populations with neurological injury and disease. This structured review focused on populations previously studied, instrumentation used for measurement, commonly reported OMT outcomes, and recommendations concerning protocol design and future studies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVisual problems are common in people who have neurological injury or disease, with deficits linked to postural control and gait impairment. Vision therapy could be a useful intervention for visual impairment in various neurological conditions such as stroke, head injury, or Parkinson's disease. Stroboscopic visual training (SVT) has been shown to improve aspects of visuomotor and cognitive performance in healthy populations, but approaches vary with respect to testing protocols, populations, and outcomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGait speed declines with age and slower walking speeds are associated with poor health outcomes. Understanding why we do not walk faster as we age, despite being able to, has implications for rehabilitation. Changes in regional oxygenated haemoglobin (HbO2) across the frontal lobe were monitored using functional near infrared spectroscopy in 17 young and 18 older adults while they walked on a treadmill for 5 min, alternating between 30 s of walking at a preferred and fast (120% preferred) speed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: Although the multifactorial nature of falls in Parkinson's disease (PD) is well described, optimal assessment for the identification of fallers remains unclear. Thus, we aimed to identify clinical and objective gait measures that best discriminate fallers from non-fallers in PD, with suggestions of optimal cutoff scores.
Methods: Individuals with mild-to-moderate PD were classified as fallers (n = 31) or non-fallers (n = 96) based on the previous 12 months' falls.
Background: Mobile applications and technology (e.g., stroboscopic glasses) are increasingly being used to deliver combined visual and cognitive (termed visuo-cognitive) training that replaces standard pen and paper-based interventions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWalking/gait quality is a useful clinical tool to assess general health and is now broadly described as the sixth vital sign. This has been mediated by advances in sensing technology, including instrumented walkways and three-dimensional motion capture. However, it is wearable technology innovation that has spawned the highest growth in instrumented gait assessment due to the capabilities for monitoring within and beyond the laboratory.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAging is a key risk factor for the development of Parkinson's disease (PD). PD is characterized by excessive synchrony of beta oscillations (13-30 Hz) in the basal ganglia thalamo-cortical network. However, cortical beta power is not reliably elevated in individuals with PD.
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