Kinesia paradoxa is a phenomenon most often seen in people with Parkinson's disease where individuals who typically experience severe difficulties with the simple movements may perform complex movements easily.[1] Specifically, kinesia paradoxa focuses on walking, referring to the sudden ability to demonstrate smooth, fluid movements in people that previously had problems with walking easily. This new discovery does not just happen to an individual randomly, but must be stimulated using various types of visual or auditory cues.
This phenomenon is generally stimulated to help improve the mobility of people with akinesia.[2] Akinesia consists of changes in walking pattern, freezing of gait (FOG), and losses of balance (LOBs). FOG occurs in the middle of stride, cutting off walking, and making it fairly difficult for a person to re-initiate a movement. Kinesia paradoxa can be used as a management strategy to overcome this.[3] LOBs are when a person has difficulty maintaining an upright position and lose their balance, eventually leading to them falling.[2] Since Parkinson’s disease is a progressive disease, patient’s symptoms continue to worsen with time and they often develop visible differences in their walking that greatly affects their quality of life. These differences include shuffling of steps, decreased stride length, and decrease in overall movement. Kinesia paradoxa is not able to be stimulated in everyone with movement disorders; persons who can stimulate this phenomenon demonstrate visible improvements in mobility including, increased stride length, more fluidity in strides, less FOGs incidents, less LOBs, and those that appeared to be completely frozen previously can regain their movement.[2] More recently, kinesia paradoxa is also being used to treat children with Asperger's syndrome. Children with Asperger's demonstrate excellent skills in drawing, modeling, building, and computer games, but often struggle with everyday motor tasks such as walking or catching a ball. Kinesia paradoxa is currently being explored to help aid these individuals in focusing their attention and improving their efficiency in these simple motor tasks.[4]
- ^ Rinehart, N.; Bellgrove, M.; Tonge, B.; Brereton, A.; Howells-Rankin, D.; Bradshaw, J. (2006). "An Examination of Movement Kinematics in Young People with High-functioning Autism and Asperger's Disorder: Further Evidence for a Motor Planning Deficit". Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. 36 (6): 757–767. doi:10.1007/s10803-006-0118-x. PMC 2000294. PMID 16865551.
- ^ a b c Kaminsky, T. A.; Dudgeon, B. J.; Billingsley, F. F.; Mitchell, P. H.; Weghorst, S. J. (2007). "Virtual cues and functional mobility of people with Parkinson's disease: A single-subject pilot study". Journal of Rehabilitation Research & Development. 44 (3): 437–448. doi:10.1682/jrrd.2006.09.0109. PMID 18247240.
- ^ Moreau, C.; Defebvre, L.; Bleuse, S.; Blatt, J.; Duhamel, A.; Bloem, B.; et al. (2008). "Externally provoked freezing of gait in open runways in advanced Parkinson's disease results from motor and mental collapse". Journal of Neural Transmission. 115 (10): 1431–1436. doi:10.1007/s00702-008-0099-3. PMID 18726136.
- ^ Rinehart, N.; Tonge, B.; Bradshaw, J.; Iansek, R.; Enticott, P.; McGinley, J. (2006). "Gait function in high-functioning autism and Asperger's disorder Evidence for basal-ganglia and cerebellar involvement?". European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. 15 (5): 256–264. doi:10.1007/s00787-006-0530-y. PMID 16554961. S2CID 20128450.