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.
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.
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.
University of Haifa
Lead sponsor
University of Haifa, Israel
Collaborator