Students: Isabel Hedayat

Type of project: Mind and Body, Translational, Clinical Trial

Grant Type: Undergraduate

Year of Award: 2015, 2016

Supervisor: Dr. Oates

Institutions Affiliated: University of Saskatchewan

Description: Gait and mobility issues are prevalent not only in movement disorders like Parkinsons, but in normal aging populations. This project seeks to evaluate a novel physical therapy intervention, haptic anchoring, against the current standard practice, both quantitatively (gait improvement measures) but also qualitatively (to understand how people responded to haptic anchoring). This project could act as a precursor for a full scale clinical trial of haptic anchoring (which involves using balls on strings that dangle near the floor to provide additional sensory feedback when walking).