Objective: To investigate gait initiation in response to emotion inducing pictures in subjects with Parkinson’s disease (PD).

Background: Novel pathophysiological models have linked gait disturbances in PD to the dysfunction in brain circuits involved in emotion and cognition rather than motor control. In healthy, it has been directly demonstrated that emotion stimuli influence the initiation and execution of voluntary stepping. Particularly, participants made forward or backward steps on a force plate in response to the valence of visual stimuli (Stins et al., 2011). The authors showed that unpleasant images selectively caused an initial freezing response.

Methods: Thirteen patients with PD and 12 age and gender-matched healthy controls were recruited for this study. In the affect- congruent condition participants made forward (approach) steps in response to pleasant visual stimuli whereas they made backward (avoidance) steps in response to unpleasant visual stimuli. In the affect-incongruent condition, this mapping was reversed. The experiments were made in two separate days and the order was randomized. Reaction time and step size were recorded by means of a sensorized mat (GaitRite).

Results: Results revealed significant effects of emotion on the step parameters. Unpleasant images caused an increase in reaction time in both groups of subjects (p<0.01), whereas in PD only unpleasant images caused also a reduction in the step size (p<0.05). These effects were not influenced by the congruency of the task.

Conclusions: The results confirmed that affect, especially negative emotions, and voluntary stepping are coupled. In patients with PD the valence of emotional stimuli influenced not only step preparation (reaction time), but also step execution (step size) supporting the theory on the role of the non-motor systems (e.g., limbic system) in the pathophysiological mechanisms of gait disturbances. Stins JF, Beek PJ. Organization of voluntary stepping in response to emotion-inducing pictures. Gait Posture. 2011; 34: 164-8.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/gait-initiation-in-response-to-emotion-inducing-pictures-in-parkinsons-disease/