Gait kinematics and cognitive skills in Parkinson disease

Parkinson disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder with both motor and cognitive dysfunctions. Gait disturbance is a cardinal biomarker of PD while cognitive deficit and impairment have heterogenous presentations. However, both may be evident early in disease course and occur concomitantly. In this study, cognitive assessments of response inhibition (RI), working memory (WM), and mental rotation (MR) were correlated with gait kinematics of single task (ST), dual-task (DT), and timed-up-and-go (TUG) locomotion in a highly functioning PD cohort. Kinematic analysis was obtained via a deep learning marker-less motion capture system. Our findings suggest working memory (WM) and mental rotation (MR) are strongly correlated with gait kinematics, particularly with DT walking and TUG performance. These findings may have clinical, rehabilitative, and neuroscientific utility for those involved in the study and management of PD.