The Effect of Rhythmic Auditory Cues on Cognitive Resource Allocation During Gait Initiation: An EEG Study

Rhythmic auditory stimulation (RAS) has been shown to be beneficial for the gait initiation (GI) in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients with freezing of gait. However, the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms are still poorly understood. In this study, we utilized electroencephalography (EEG) and surface electromyography (sEMG) to investigate differences in neural and muscular activity during the gait initiation phase of 20 healthy participants, under conditions with and without RAS. We analyzed contingent negative variation (CNV) amplitude in EEG during gait initiation and the behaviorally relevant onset time of sEMG initiation, primarily from a time-domain analysis perspective. Additionally, we employed a two-tailed t-test to compare the CNV amplitude and sEMG onset time between the two conditions (with RAS vs. without RAS). The results revealed that CNV was induced in the middle pre-frontal, frontal, central, and temporal regions under both rhythmic and non-rhythmic auditory stimulation (Non_ RAS) conditions. Significant differences in CNV amplitude were observed in the temporal region between conditions with and without RAS, with higher CNV amplitudes observed under RAS conditions. Additionally, sEMG data indicated that the onset of gait was earlier in participants exposed to RAS.