Smartshoes for Freezing of Gait in Parkinson's Disease

Inclusion criteria

For patients with Parkinson disease:

• diagnosis of PD according to the UK Brain Bank criteria
• Hoehn and Yahr stages 2 to 3 during the ON phase of PD medication
• Self-report episodes of FoG based on item 1 of the NFOG-Q, and score of 3 on item 2, part II

For patients with Parkinson disease withOUT freezing of gait:

• diagnosis of PD according to the UK Brain Bank criteria
• Hoehn and Yahr stages 2 to 3 during the ON phase of PD medication

For all participants (PD with or without freezing, or age-matched controls):

• adult age 40-80
• able to walk 10 minutes at baseline
• able to provide consent
• able to read and write in English at an 8th grade level.

Exclusion criteria

For all participants (PD with or without freezing, or age-matched controls)

• moderate to severe peripheral neuropathy (based on self report or clinical exam using vibration tuning fork) which may limit ability to sense the vibratory feedback
• use of orthotics incompatible with the haptic wearable shoes
• severe balance deficits or daily falls at baseline
• patients with dementia (MoCA<18) who are not able to appropriately provide consent for the study
• pregnant persons