Leonard La Pointe and Julie Stierwalt of the SCSD faculty have published a research article in the International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology along with Charles Maitland (College of Medicine). 

For “Talking while walking: Cognitive loading and injurious falls in Parkinson’s disease,” the researchers studied 25 participants with Parkinson’s disease and 13 participants without neurological compromise. Participants completed gait tasks while conducting tasks of low (counting by ones), middle (serial subtraction of threes), and high load (alpha-numeric sequencing). The results indicated that cognitive-linguistic demand had an impact on gait, the effects of which were demonstrated in individuals without neurological compromise as well as those with Parkinson’s disease. 

The paper “details significant problems that result from injurious falls, and points out the vulnerability of those who have been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. In addition, it provides an illustrative study that demonstrates the potential danger of talking while walking, especially when the cognitive-linguistic complexity of verbal tasks is manipulated.” To learn more, see a summary of the article.

Citation:
Talking while walking: Cognitive loading and injurious falls in Parkinson’s disease
Leonard L. LaPointe, Julie A. G. Stierwalt, Charles G. Maitland
International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology : 1–5.
Posted online on 15 Jul 2010.