Assessing rhythm reproducibility during gait after internal rhythm-learning tasks: a pilot study in healthy adults and patients with Parkinson’s disease

[Purpose] To investigate the feasibility of a new rhythm-learning task using internal cues in healthy individuals and patients with Parkinson's disease. [Participants and Methods] This study included 27 healthy individuals and six patients with Parkinson's disease. All participants first learned rhythms through either stepping or tapping tasks. Subsequently, they attempted to reproduce the learned rhythms while walking. The relative rhythm reproducibility error was calculated by comparing the target rhythm with the rhythm generated during walking. Experiment 1 examined the effects of task type and rhythm condition in healthy individuals, whereas Experiment 2 focused on the effects of stepping-based rhythm-learning task in patients with Parkinson's disease. [Results] In healthy participants, rhythm reproducibility errors differed significantly depending on task type and rhythm condition. Stepping produced more accurate walking rhythms than tapping. Patients with Parkinson's disease who had lower scores on the Frontal Assessment Battery and longer completion times on the Trail Making Test Part B tended to show reduced rhythm reproducibility. [Conclusions] This rhythm-learning task using internal cues could be applied to individuals with Parkinson's disease. The findings suggest a possible association between the ability to learn rhythmic patterns internally and frontal lobe cognitive function.