Patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) show typical gait asymmetries. These peculiar motor impairments are exacerbated by added cognitive and/or mechanical loading. However, there is scarce literature that chains these two stimuli. The aim of this study was to investigate the combined effects of a dual task (cognitive task) and turning (mechanical task) on the spatiotemporal parameters in mild to moderate PD. Participants (nine patients with PD and nine controls (CRs)) were evaluated while walking at their self-selected pace without a secondary task (single task), and while repeating the days of the week backwards (dual task) along a straight direction and a 60° and 120° turn. As speculated, in single tasking, PD patients preferred to walk with a shorter stride length (p < 0.05) but similar timing parameters, compared to the CR group; in dual tasking, both groups walked slower with shorter strides. As the turn angle increased, the speed will be reduced (p < 0.001), whereas the ground–foot contact will become greater (p < 0.001) in all the participants. We showed that the combination of a simple cognitive task and a mechanical task (especially at larger angles) could represent an important training stimulus in PD at the early stages of the pathology.

中文翻译：

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轻度至中度损伤的帕金森病患者转弯时次要任务对运动学的影响

帕金森病 (PD) 患者表现出典型的步态不对称。这些特殊的运动障碍会因增加的认知和/或机械负荷而加剧。然而，很少有文献将这两种刺激联系起来。本研究的目的是调查双重任务（认知任务）和转向（机械任务）对轻度至中度 PD 时空参数的综合影响。参与者（9 名 PD 患者和 9 名对照组 (CR)）在以他们自己选择的速度行走时进行评估，没有次要任务（单项任务），同时沿直线方向向后重复一周中的几天（双任务），并且60° 和 120° 转弯。正如推测的那样，在单任务中，与 CR 组相比，PD 患者更喜欢以较短的步幅（p < 0.05）但相似的时间参数行走；在双重任务中，两组都走得更慢，步幅更短。随着转弯角度的增加，速度将降低（p < 0.001），而所有参与者的地脚接触将变得更大（p < 0.001）。我们表明，简单的认知任务和机械任务（尤其是在更大的角度）的组合可以代表 PD 在病理学早期阶段的重要训练刺激。