Perception of Affordances and Obstacle Crossing in People With Parkinson's Disease and Healthy Adults
For patients and families
In plain language
An automatic summary of structured registry data. It is an orientation aid, not a substitute for the official protocol or a physician assessment.
- What is being studied
- The protocol lists: Assessment of Gait and Visual Exploration.
- Who it may be relevant to
- Registry conditions: Parkinson's Disease (PD). Basic parameters: 20 years — 80 years · All.
- What needs checking
- Age, condition and sex are only basic indicators. Prior treatment, laboratory values and other mandatory requirements appear in the eligibility criteria below.
- Where it takes place
- Israel
- Next step
- Save the trial, show it to the treating physician, and confirm current recruitment with the study center. Costs, documents and travel →
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Official title
Affordances and Impairments: A Paradigm for Understanding Obstacle Crossing in Parkinson's Disease
Overview
This study aims to explore how young adults, older adults and people with Parkinson's disease (PwP), perceive their abilty to cross obstacles while walking, and how this perception is related to their actual performance of obstacle crossing and disease-related motor and cognitive impairments. The study will explore this percepeption and the actual performance in different walking environments(floor, synthetic grass turf). Understanding how people perceive obstacles may help improve rehabilitation methods and reduce the risk of falls. The study will take place at the Motor Performance Laboratory, University of Haifa, and will include walking tasks, eye-tracking measurements, and motor and cognitive assessments.
Detailed description
This study investigates the role of affordance perception - the ability to perceive opportunities for action - during obstacle crossing in people with Parkinson's disease (PwP). Falls are highly prevalent in PwP, often resulting from tripping over obstacles. While previous research has mainly focused on gait impairments, this study uniquely examines the perceptual stage that precedes movement and the association between perception, cognition, and motor performance.
Participants will include 60 PwP and 120 healthy adults (60 older adults and 60 young adults). All participants will perform walking tasks involving obstacle crossing under different environmental conditions (e.g., different obstacle heights and surfaces). Prior to walking, participants will judge whether they can safely cross the obstacle. Eye-tracking glasses will measure visual exploration patterns to assess how participants scan the environment. Additionally, walking variables such as speed and step length, will be recorded using wearable sensors.
The study will explore:
1. Differences in affordance perception between PwP and healthy adults. 2. Associations between motor and cognitive impairments and affordance perception in PwP. 3. How affordance perception relates to gait performance during obstacle crossing.
Results from this study may help to develop new intervention strategies aimed at improving safe walking and obstacle negotiation in PwP.
Interventions
- Other Assessment of Gait and Visual Exploration
Participants will perform walking tasks involving obstacle crossing while their gait and visual exploration patterns are recorded using wearable sensors and eye-tracking glasses. This is a non-invasive observational study with no therapeutic intervention.
Primary outcome measures
- Affordance Perception Accuracy [Time frame: During single laboratory session (about 3 hours)]
- Affordances measured by gaze behavior [Time frame: During a single laboratory session (approximately 3 hours)]
Secondary outcome measures (5)
- Movement Disorders Society Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS) [Time frame: During a single laboratory session (approximately 3 hours)]
- Walking Speed [Time frame: During a single laboratory session (approximately 3 hours)]
- Step Length [Time frame: During a single laboratory session (approximately 3 hours)]
- Levodopa Equivalent Daily Dose (LEDD) [Time frame: During a single laboratory session (approximately 3 hours)]
- Cognitive Performance - Stroop Test (NeuroTrax Cognitive Battery) [Time frame: During a single laboratory session (approximately 3 hours)]
Eligibility criteria
Inclusion criteria
- Participants aged 20 to 80 years.
- Ability to walk independently outdoors without assistive devices.
- For Parkinson's Disease (PD) group: Diagnosis of PD confirmed by medical records.
- For healthy control groups: No neurological or orthopedic conditions affecting gait.
Exclusion criteria
- Feezing of gait (for PD group only), based on a score greater than 0 on the Freezing of Gait Questionnaire.
- Severe visual impairment that cannot be corrected with glasses or lenses.
- Cognitive impairment, defined as a score below 18 on the telephone-based Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE).
- Any orthopedic condition, pain, or other medical condition that may affect walking, based on self-report.
Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.
Healthy volunteers: Yes
Study design
- Observational model
- Case-control
Study locations
Israel · 1 center
- University of Haifa, Motor Performance Laboratory — Haifa
Identifiers
NCT: NCT06932679 · 1561/25