Sing for Your Saunter

During this observational study, all participants will attend two visits 4-10 days apart. At the first visit, all participants (participants with PD and age-matched controls) will wear wearable sensors during the following tasks: walking with no cues; walking while listening to music; and walking while mentally singing. The wearable sensors will measure gait parameters including gait speed and stride time variability. All participants will also conduct the following tasks while finger tapping on a keyboard: tapping with no cues; tapping while listening to music; and tapping while mentally singing.

At the second visit, all participants (participants with PD and age-matched controls) will perform the following tasks during imaging: uncued tapping; listening to music (no tapping); mentally singing (no tapping); listening to music and tapping; and mentally singing and tapping.

Inclusion criteria

for all participants:

• at least 30 years of age;
• willing and able to provide informed consent;
• right-handed or ambidextrous;
• normal hearing;
• weight less than 250 lbs; and
• able to walk for 10 continuous minutes independently.

Inclusion criteria

for participants with PD also include:

• diagnosis of idiopathic, typical Parkinson disease according to the United Kingdom Brain Bank Criteria;
• Hoehn & Yahr stages 2-3 (mild to moderate disease severity);
• stable on all PD medications for at least 2 months prior to study entry;
• a score of 1 or less on item # 7 on the New Freezing of Gait Questionnaire; and
• score of ≥ 1 on the Movement Disorder Society - Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS)-III Item #10 indicating observable gait impairment.

Exclusion criteria

for both groups include:

• diagnosis of any other neurological condition;
• significant cognitive impairment;
• unstable medical or concomitant illnesses or psychiatric conditions which, in the opinion of the investigators, would preclude successful participation;
• cardiac problems that interfere with ability to safely participate (i.e., uncontrolled congestive heart failure, myocardial infarction in past 6 months, complex cardiac arrhythmias, significant left ventricular dysfunction, dyspnea on exertion, chest pain or pressure, resting tachycardia (>100 beats/min); uncontrolled BP (resting systolic BP >160 mmHg or diastolic BP >100 mmHg));
• orthopedic problems in the lower extremities or spine that may limit walking (i.e., severe arthritis, spinal stenosis);
• contraindications for magnetic resonance imaging (e.g., metallic implants); or
• uncontrolled tremor or dyskinesia (while on PD medications if applicable).