Marc Pappas

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that predominantly affects movement, including gait, and specifically the speed and stride length. Primary symptoms often present unilaterally early in the disease, increasing the variability of walking and contributing to asymmetry during walking. Reduced gait speed and mobility dysfunction are among the top treatment priority for those with PD as these features are related to community ambulation, independence, and overall mortality. In recent studies, treadmills have been utilized as a rehabilitative approach in PD to evaluate and improve spatial temporal parameters (STP), such as stride length and stride time. While treadmill walking is a safe and effective physical intervention, it is still relatively unknown how participants change and adapt their walking pattern during a single exposure to treadmill walking. Exploring how a participant’s walking strategy, as measured by STP, changes over fifteen minutes of treadmill walking is necessary to continue the advancement of rehabilitative techniques to make them more effective for the PD population. I propose to use a split-belt treadmill, which measures the force produced from each leg independently while moving at the same speed, to understand the mechanisms of adaptation during treadmill walking in PD.