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theses

With age and disease, potential declines in function may result in barriers to participating in and adhering to an exercise program. There is a need for innovative, creative, and safe exercise programs that engage and motivate older adults and adults with neurological disease. Evidence based virtual environments (VE) that incorporate motor learning and compensatory strategies such cueing and feedback can change motor behavior while being engaging and motivating. Although VEs have been used for exercise promotion in healthy people and people with stroke, a specific understanding of embedding cueing and feedback in a cycling VE is absent. The purpose of this work was to investigate the short-term effect of cueing, feedback, and directed attention in a cycling VE on temporal and spatial parameters of cycling in people with PD and healthy age matched adults. Methods A cross sectional design including people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) (n=15) and age-matched healthy adults (n=13) was used. The protocol consisted of cycling on a stationary bicycle while interacting with a VE. Participants cycled under 4 conditions; auditory cueing, visual cueing, feedback, and directed attention. Outcomes include pedaling rate and trunk and hip kinematics. Data were analyzed by condition using factorial RMANOVAs with planned t-tests corrected for multiple comparisons. Kinematic data were further analyzed using Pearson Product Moment Correlations. Results: Outcomes revealed that both groups increased their pedaling rate with external cues and augmented feedback. However, people with PD required attention directed to the visual cues in order to match the intensity of the stimulus. Simultaneous auditory and visual cue presentation also increased pedaling rate, and directing attention toward one or the other cue increased the magnitude of the effect. Changes in trunk and hip kinematics in both groups were found in the VE conditions. Conclusions: These data serve as preliminary evidence that embedding auditory cues, visual cues, and feedback in a cycling VE alters pedaling rate and kinematics. It may be used as a strategy to increase exercise intensity that may promote fitness and address mobility changes with PD and normal aging.

ETD_8334

Ph.D.

Includes bibliographical references

by Rosemary Gallagher

doi:10.7282/T3K64N4M

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.