ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Neurol.
Sec. Movement Disorders
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fneur.2025.1561880
This article is part of the Research TopicModeling Physical Activities, Behavioral Patterns, and Symptoms in Aging and Neurological Disorders via Novel Sensing and AI TechniquesView all 6 articles
Personalized auditory cues improve gait in patients with early Parkinson's disease
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- 2Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
- 3Department of Neurology, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
- 4Capital Normal University, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
- 5Capital Medical University, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
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Introduction: Parkinson's disease (PD) patients experience a wide variety of gait and posture problems that significantly impair their functional mobility and quality of life. Auditory cue-based training has been shown to improve gait performance in PD patients. However, most of the current methods target gains in bilateral spatiotemporal variables, whereas in the early-stages of PD, symptoms are usually unilateral. Methods: To address the effects of unilateral onset and heterogeneity of early-stage PD on patients' gait performance, we propose a personalized training method based on auditory cues to reduce gait asymmetry between patients' right and left feet. The method targets patients' gait performance through personalized music (auditory cues) and dynamically adjusts the music based on real-time gait data to ensure synchronization with the patient's walking rhythm. Specifically, gait data are acquired in real time via Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) attached to the ankles of the patient's right and left feet, which are used to calculate the gait cycles of the patient's right and left feet. Personalized music is then generated based on the patient's gait cycle. During the training process, the music is dynamically updated by continuously assessing the synchronization between the patient's gait cycle and the music beats.Results: Fifteen early-stage PD patients(H&Y≤ 2.5) were initially recruited to compare and analyze the effects of training with and without auditory cues. Gait symmetry improved in all patients who received auditory cues(t = 4.9166, p = 0.0002), with a maximum improvement of 17.685%, and gait variables also showed significant enhancement. Eleven early-stage patients were then recruited for a 7-day intervention, with a mean improvement in gait symmetry of 11.803%(t = 4.391, p = 0.001) There were significant improvements in left-foot velocity(t = 4.613, p = 0.001), right-foot velocity(t = 6.250, p = 0.0001), and right-foot stride length(t = 4.004, p = 0.0025), and the average improvement rate of gait variables reached 37.947%. This
Keywords: Gait disorder, rhythmic entrainment, personalized music, Gait sensing, Parkinson's disease
Received: 16 Jan 2025; Accepted: 20 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, Wang, Wang, Wang, Tuo, Long, Tan and Sun. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Wei Sun, Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing, 100190, Beijing Municipality, China
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