How to Get Started: Identifying the Critical Ingredients to Improve Gait Initiation in Parkinson Disease

The purpose of this study is to understand the treatment approach (i.e., targeting gait or targeting the postural adjustment prior to gait) that is most effective at improving gait initiation dynamics in people with Parkinson disease. Ten adults with idiopathic Parkinson disease who self-report difficulty initiating gait will complete the study. The investigators will be using a randomized crossover design, where the participants will participate in two series of training (i.e., postural training and steady-state gait training) with a one-week washout between trainings. Investigators will evaluate the changes induced in gait initiation postural adjustment size, first step length, and first step speed from each intervention. Due to the anticipated limitation of steady-state walking to directly address postural adjustment amplitude, it is hypothesized that training for larger amplitude weight shift during gait initiation will yield improved gait initiation dynamics compared to training with large amplitude movements during steady-state walking.