Gait disturbances are common in individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD). Although the basic patterns of walking are thought to be controlled by the brainstem and spinal networks, recent studies have found significant corticomuscular coherence in healthy individuals during walking. However, it still remains unknown how PD affect the cortical control of muscles during walking. Since PD typically develops in older adults, it is important to investigate the effects of both ageing and PD when examining disorders in PD patients. Here, we assessed the effects of PD and ageing on corticomuscular communication during walking by investigating corticomuscular coherence. We recorded electroencephalographic and electromyographic signals in 10 individuals with PD, 9 healthy older and 15 healthy young individuals. We assessed the corticomuscular coherence between the motor cortex and two lower leg muscles, tibialis anterior (TA) and medial gastrocnemius, during walking. Older and young groups showed sharp peaks in muscle activation patterns at specific gait phases, whereas the PD group showed prolonged patterns. Smaller corticomuscular coherence was found in the PD group compared to the healthy older group in the α band (8−12 Hz) for both muscles, and in the β band (16−32 Hz) for TA. Older and young groups did not differ in the magnitude of corticomuscular coherence. Our results indicated that PD decreased the corticomuscular coherence during walking, while it was not affected by ageing. This lower corticomuscular coherence in PD may indicate lower-than-normal corticomuscular communication, though direct or indirect communication is unknown, and may cause impaired muscle control during walking.

中文翻译：

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帕金森病患者行走时皮质肌肉连接缺陷。

步态障碍在帕金森病 (PD) 患者中很常见。尽管人们认为行走的基本模式是由脑干和脊柱网络控制的，但最近的研究发现，健康个体在行走过程中具有显着的皮质肌肉连贯性。然而，PD如何影响步行过程中肌肉的皮质控制仍然未知。由于 PD 通常发生在老年人中，因此在检查 PD 患者的疾病时调查衰老和 PD 的影响很重要。在这里，我们通过调查皮质肌肉连贯性来评估 PD 和衰老对步行过程中皮质肌肉交流的影响。我们记录了 10 名 PD、9 名健康老年人和 15 名健康年轻人的脑电图和肌电图信号。我们评估了行走过程中运动皮层和两个小腿肌肉、胫骨前肌 (TA) 和腓肠肌内侧之间的皮质肌肉一致性。老年组和年轻组在特定步态阶段的肌肉激活模式显示出尖峰，而 PD 组则显示出延长的模式。与健康老年组相比，两种肌肉的 α 波段 (8-12 Hz) 和 TA 的 β 波段 (16-32 Hz) 的皮质肌肉相干性较小。老年组和年轻组在皮质肌肉连贯性的大小上没有差异。我们的结果表明，PD 降低了步行过程中的皮质肌肉连贯性，而不受衰老的影响。PD 中这种较低的皮质肌肉连贯性可能表明皮质肌肉的交流低于正常水平，尽管直接或间接的交流尚不清楚，