Alex M Doyle, Devyn Bauer, Claudia Hendrix, Ying Yu, Shane D Nebeck, Sinta Fergus, Jordan Krieg, Lucius K Wilmerding, Madeline Blumenfeld, Emily Lecy, Chelsea Spencer, Ziling Luo, Disa Sullivan, Krista Brackman, Dylan Ross, Sendréa Best, Ajay Verma, Tyler Havel, Jing Wang, Luke Johnson, Jerrold L Vitek, Matthew D Johnson
OBJECTIVE: Gait dysfunction is one of the most difficult motor signs to treat in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Understanding its pathophysiology and developing more effective therapies for parkinsonian gait dysfunction will require preclinical studies that can quantitatively and objectively assess the spatial and temporal features of gait. DESIGN: We developed a novel system for measuring volitional, naturalistic gait patterns in non-human primates, and then applied the approach to characterize the progression of parkinsonian gait dysfunction across a sequence of 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) treatments that allowed for intrasubject comparisons across mild, moderate, and severe stages...
2022: Frontiers in Neurology