Hanna Roehling: Walk the Line: Analysis of Tandem Gait in Neurodegenerative Diseases

BCCN Berlin/TU Berlin

Movement abnormalities are amongst the most common symptoms of multiple sclerosis and related demyelinating diseases and often serve as clinical markers of disease progression. In this context, tandem gait constitutes an established test for the assessment of balance impairments. Pathological parameters of tandem gait, however, are not easily quantifiable by clinicians. In this thesis, parametrisation by means of depth image processing was used to gain insights into disease-related movement patterns during tandem gait. For this task, data from healthy controls as well as persons with multiple sclerosis, clinically isolated syndrome and neuromyelitis optica were used to extract quantitative descriptors of tandem gait. The extracted features were analysed with respect to their capacity to discriminate between diseased and healthy subjects and their associations with clinical scores indicating disease manifestation. For the analyses statistical as well as machine learning methods were employed. Results suggest that there are disease-specific differences in tandem gait patterns that are associated with cerebellar dysfunction. The parametrisation of tandem gait can complement conventional tools to assess movement disorders and contribute to a refined and more sensitive assessment of movement impairments as well as respective underlying mechanisms.

Additional Information

Master thesis defense in the International Master Program Computational Neuroscience.

Organized by

Benjamin Blankertz / Robert Martin

Location

BCCN Berlin, lecture hall, Philippstr. 13 Haus 6, 10115 Berlin