Gait Rhythm of Parkinson’s Disease Patients and an Interpersonal Synchrony Emulation System Based on Cooperative Gait

Abstract

Parkinson’s disease (PD) and basal ganglia dysfunction impair movement timing, and this impairment leads to gait instability and falls. Gait disturbances of PD can occur in numerous ways, including festinating (accelerating) gait, slow shuffling gait, or highly variable random stride-timing. The authors’ research group is studying an ambulatory assistive system that is based on the cooperative gait among human beings for locomotion rehabilitation. In this chapter, they introduce gait disturbances of PD, especially festinating gait, and they introduce an Interpersonal synchrony emulation system between a human and a virtual biped robot, which entrains the gait timings of the human and the robot in a cross-feedback manner by presenting auditory stimulation that indicates the timing of the partner’s foot contact with the ground. In a pilot study that evaluated walking with the system, the festinating gaits of the PD patients were improved, and carry-over effects were observed. These results suggested that the interpersonal interaction seems to be effective for the welfare support of locomotive ability.