Dietz
Fakultäten » Medizinische Fakultät » Universitätsklinik Balgrist und Schweizerisches Paraplegikerzentrum » Paraplegikerzentrum » Prof. Dr. Volker Dietz (emeritiert) » Dietz
Completed research project
| Title / Titel | Neuronal control of movement: reflexes, programs and supraspinal influence | ||||
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| Abstract (PDF, 14 KB) | |||||
| Summary / Zusammenfassung | The aim of this project is to investigate, first, spinal reflex mechanisms involved in learning and performing a precision locomotor task, second, pathophysiological processes underlying impaired motor learning in patients with Parkinson‘s disease (PD) and third, motor development in children. The locomotor learning task consists of minimizing foot clearance when repeatedly stepping on a treadmill over a randomly approaching obstacle, without touching it. In order to investigate spinal reflex modulation and interlimb coordination during motor learning, a train of electrical stimuli is randomly applied to the right tibial nerve during the acquisition and performance of unilateral obstacle stepping. EMG recordings are made from the ipsilateral leg flexor as well as from proximal arm muscles of both sides and the reflex responses evoked by these stimuli are analyzed. The second goal of the project is to investigate the influence of a special movement disorder on the acquisition and performance of a precision locomotor task. Therefore, the obstacle stepping experiment is performed with patients with PD and the unilateral task is extended to a more complex bilateral task, i.e. two obstacles randomly approach on the either right or left side. Differences in both foot clearance and EMG activity required to overcome the obstacle are assessed in comparison to healthy age-matched control subjects. The third goal has the objective to determine the influence of the current state of motor development on the processes of learning and performing the obstacle stepping task. For this, children aged from 6 to 12 as well as young adult control subjects are investigated during both uni- and bilateral obstacle stepping. |
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| Publications / Publikationen | van Hedel HJ, Waldvogel D, Dietz V. Learning a high-precision locomotor task in patients with Parkinson's disease. Mov Disord. 2006;21:406-411. | ||||
| Keywords / Suchbegriffe | obstacle walking; motor learning | ||||
| Project leadership and contacts / Projektleitung und Kontakte |
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| Funding source(s) / Unterstützt durch |
SNF (Personen- und Projektförderung) |
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| Duration of Project / Projektdauer | Jan 2005 to Dec 2007 |