In Parkinson's Disease (PD) the postural synergy use to begin the initial fall in the saggital plane during gait initiation has been shown degraded and/or altered from that of healthy populations. The exact mechanism behind this poverty in gait initiation is unknown. This research was designed to assess the possibility that the signal from the central nervous system is degraded due to the disease which effects the basal ganglia leading to a reduced excitation and inhibition of the tibialis anterior (TA) and soleus (SOL) muscles respectively. Parkinson participants were asked to initiate gait to three different conditions, TENS (transcutaneous electrical neural stimulation) at the TA, TENS at the arm, and auditory signaling. The premise behind this research is that by bilaterally increasing the force output at of the TA muscles through TENS stimulation during the early stages of gait initiation one should observe improvement in gait initiation parameters of those with the disease. Three of the nine research hypothesis were supported with restrictions. Significant increases in peak center of mass velocity, center of mass velocity at heel-off, and horizontal impulse were established between TENS at the leg and auditory signaling conditions. Administration of TENS at the TA during the anticipatory postural adjustment phase does increase certain gait initiation parameters significantly in individuals with PD. TENS at the TA may also create, in PD patients, an increased force output by other muscles used in gait initiation. Interestingly, individuals with PD do significantly increase their gait initiation velocities apparently without significantly increasing the Anterior/posterior center of foot pressure shift. This finding suggests that individuals with PD utilize different strategies for GI than healthy populations. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Nutrition, Food, and Exercise Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of
Science. / Spring Semester, 2003. / May 31, 2003. / Kinetic Parameters of Gait Initiation in Parkinson / Includes bibliographical references. / Tonya Toole, Professor Directing Thesis; Charles C. Ouimet, Outside Committee Member; Lynn Panton, Committee Member; John Bertram, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_182045 |
| Contributors | Holton, Eric (authoraut), Toole, Tonya (professor directing thesis), Ouimet, Charles C. (outside committee member), Panton, Lynn (committee member), Bertram, John (committee member), Department of Nutrition, Food, and Exercise Science (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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