Sing for Your Saunter

Not Applicable

Completed

Conditions: Parkinson Disease

Registration Number: NCT04246476

Lead Sponsor: Washington University School of Medicine

Brief Summary: Older adults, and particularly those with Parkinson disease (PD), may experience walking difficulties that negatively impact their daily function and quality of life. This project will examine the impact of music and mentally singing on walking performance, with a goal of understanding what types of rhythmic cues are most helpful. Our pilot work suggests that imagined, mental singing (i.e., singing in your head) while while walking helps people walk faster with greater stability, whereas walking to music also helps people walk faster but with reduced stability.

In Aim 1, the investigators will compare walking while mentally singing to walking while listening to music, using personalized cues tailored to each person's walking performance. The investigators hypothesize stride time variability will be less in the mental singing condition compared to listening to music; and that mental singing and listening to music will improve gait speed similarly as compared to the uncued condition. The investigators will also test whether finger tapping, a rhythmic task similar to walking in many ways, responds similarly while mentally singing and listening to music.

In Aim 2, the investigator will investigate the brain mechanisms underlying the enhancements in movement performance seen with mental signing or listening to music. The investigators will use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to measure brain activity during finger tapping with and without various cues to understand which areas of the brain are more or less responsive to the cues. The investigators hypothesize individuals with PD will exhibit lesser activation of putamen and greater activation of cortical motor areas and cerebellum compared to controls in all tapping conditions; and internal, mental singing during tapping will elicit greater activation of the putamen and lesser activation of cortical motor areas in both groups compared to uncued tapping and tapping while listening to music.

Detailed Description: During this observational study, all participants will attend two visits 4-10 days apart. At the first visit, all participants (participants with PD and age-matched controls) will wear wearable sensors during the following tasks: walking with no cues; walking while listening to music; and walking while mentally singing. The wearable sensors will measure gait parameters including gait speed and stride time variability. All participants will also conduct the following tasks while finger tapping on a keyboard: tapping with no cues; tapping while listening to music; and tapping while mentally singing.

At the second visit, all participants (participants with PD and age-matched controls) will perform the following tasks during imaging: uncued tapping; listening to music (no tapping); mentally singing (no tapping); listening to music and tapping; and mentally singing and tapping.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status: COMPLETED

Sex: All

Target Recruitment: 67

Inclusion Criteria

Not provided

Exclusion Criteria

Not provided

Study & Design

Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL

Study Design: PARALLEL

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Stride Length Variability	Baseline	Measured with wearable sensors by APDM Wearable Technology
Gait Speed	Baseline	Measured with wearable sensors by APDM Wearable Technology

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Brain Activity (BOLD Signal)	Baseline	We analyzed the Blood Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD) signal in the brain to determine where there were areas of significant changes in brain activity, relative to rest, when participants were moving with no cue (uncued), moving to the beat during self cueing (mental singing) and moving to the best during external cueing (music). BOLD values are reported are Beta weights. Positive values indicate an increase in activity relative to rest and negative values indicate a decrease in activity relative to rest.

Trial Locations

Locations (1): Washington University School of Medicine Program in Physical Therapy
🇺🇸
Saint Louis, Missouri, United States
Washington University School of Medicine Program in Physical Therapy
🇺🇸Saint Louis, Missouri, United States