Combined Cognitive and Gait Training

Recent research in gait training for stroke survivors showed that coordinated gait components can be best restored using the following interventions together: coordination exercises, over ground gait training, and body weight supported treadmill training (BWSTT). These results are important because, to the investigators' knowledge, there have been no other reports of the restoration of coordinated gait components for those with persistent gait deficits (\> 6 months after stroke). However, a remaining problem was that the restored coordinated gait movements measured in the laboratory did not generalize for many subjects to the everyday environment. The confluence of several factors can cause lack of generalization. First, dual task performance (gait and cognitive attention task) can degrade both gait and attention ability, even in healthy adults. Second, stroke can impair attention. Third, during walking in the everyday environment, attention is required in order to safely process normally occurring stimuli. Therefore, given the success of the new gait training protocol in the lab setting, it is important to address the problems remaining for generalization of the recovered coordinated gait pattern to the everyday environment. The primary hypothesis of this study is that greater gains in gait speed will be produced by combined motor and cognitive training versus motor training alone.