Parkinson's Disease-Related Impairments in Body Movement, Coordination and Postural Control Mechanisms When Performing 80° Lateral Gaze Shifts

We investigated early signs of Parkinson's disease-related impairment in mediolateral postural control. Thirty-six participants (18 Hoehn & Yahr stage 2 patients in the off-drug condition and 18 healthy controls) were studied in a stationary gaze condition and when performing 80 lateral gaze shifts at 0.125 and 0.25 Hz. Body sway, coordination and postural control mechanisms were analyzed. All participants performed the visual tasks adequately. The patients were not unstable in the stationary gaze condition. In both groups, mediolateral ankle-and hip-based postural control mechanisms were significantly more active under gaze shift conditions than under the stationary gaze condition. As expected, the patients exhibited significantly greater angular movements of the lower back and significantly lower angular movements of the head (relative to controls) when performing gaze shifts. When considering linear displacements (rather than angular movements), the patients exhibited significantly greater displacements of the lower back and lower, slower displacements of the head than controls under gaze shift conditions. Relative to controls, the patients performed "en block" body movements. Overall, our results show that the patients' ankle-and hip-based mediolateral postural control mechanisms did not adapt to the difficulty of the visual task being performed.