Emotional state affects gait initiation in individuals with Parkinson’s disease

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to determine the impact of manipulating emotional state on gait initiation in persons with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and healthy older adults. Following the presentation of pictures that are known to elicit specific emotional responses, participants initiated gait and continued to walk for several steps at their normal pace. Reaction time, the displacement and velocity of the center of pressure (COP) trajectory during the preparatory postural adjustments, and length and velocity of the first two steps were measured. Analysis of the gait initiation measures revealed that exposure to (1) threatening pictures, relative to all other pictures, speeded the initiation of gait for PD patients and healthy older adults; (2) approach-oriented emotional pictures (erotic and happy people), relative to withdrawal-oriented pictures, facilitated the anticipatory postural adjustments of gait initiation for PD patients and healthy older adults, as evidenced by greater displacement and velocity of the COP movement; and (3) emotional pictures modulated gait initiation parameters in PD patients to the same degree as in healthy older adults. Collectively, these findings hold significant implications for understanding the circuitry underlying the manner by which emotions modulate movement and for the development of emotion-based interventions designed to maximize improvements in gait initiation for individuals with PD.

Effects of Emotionally Charged Auditory Stimulation on Gait Performance in the Elderly: A Preliminary Study

“…28–34 Affective nonverbal vocalizations—laughing and crying—have also been shown to activate the human amygdala regardless of attentive state, 35–39 suggesting that we might be more sensitive to emotionally salient background auditory stimuli. Emotional states have also been shown to have specific effects on gait 40–43 : for example, depressive states decrease ground reaction forces, pleasant emotional states facilitate initiation of forward gait, and anxiety states increase the attentional demand for locomotion. 44 Given the sensitivity of gait parameters to different emotional states, an emotionally salient listening task may be an ideal interference task to challenge the cognitive reserve for mobility and assess fall risk in elderly individuals.…”

From Emotions to Mood Disorders: A Survey on Gait Analysis Methodology

“…The measurement of kinematics and kinetics during GI is beneficial for evaluating the relationship between the motor system and emotions [48]. Under pleasant stimuli, such as joyful videos/images, increased COP movement was observed during the anticipatory postural adjustment phase of GI [47], [49], [50].…”

“…GI is influenced by several factors including different feelings, disease progression and age. For example, manipulating emotional states has enhanced GI performance in patients with PD [1], [32], [48]. For example, watching threatening images resulted in increased GI speed both in PD patients and controls [48].…”

“…For example, manipulating emotional states has enhanced GI performance in patients with PD [1], [32], [48]. For example, watching threatening images resulted in increased GI speed both in PD patients and controls [48]. The authors suggested that emotional images modulated GI parameters in healthy controls and PD patients at the same level.…”

Social embodiment in directional stepping behavior

“…During the second phase, the task-relevant information (in this case, the gender) is linked with the instructions and the actor selects and initiates a forward or backward step. This involves destabilizing one's body or, in biomechanical terms, uncoupling one's center of mass and the center of pressure (e.g., Naugle et al 2012). Initiation of a step involves lifting the leg, which causes the COP to make a rapid (lateral) shift toward the stance leg.…”