Evidence Hub

Sonification for Personalised Gait Intervention

Quick-read summary

This work explores the use of sonification in personalised gait rehabilitation. It highlights the potential of auditory cueing techniques, especially in improving mobility for individuals with mobility disorders. The research focuses on how different acoustic variables like pitch, timbre, and amplitude can be manipulated to enhance the effectiveness of gait rehabilitation, providing a contemporary approach to personalised therapy.

Who is this evidence useful for?

This research is beneficial for medical professionals, therapists, and researchers focused on gait rehabilitation, particularly for individuals with PD and other mobility disorders.

What is the issue?

• The challenge in gait rehabilitation is finding effective, engaging methods.
• Current auditory cueing methods have limitations.
• Sonification offers a personalized approach to enhance gait training.

Research overview

The research focuses on the innovative application of sonification in gait rehabilitation. Sonification refers to converting data into sound, which in this case is movement data. This rehabilitation approach is particularly examined for its effectiveness in aiding individuals with Parkinson’s Disease. By transforming the intricacies of gait patterns into sound, the study investigates how auditory cues can be tailored to each person to enhance gait rehabilitation processes.

What the research found

• Sonification techniques can be effectively applied to various gait characteristics, cycles, and joint kinematics.
• Manipulating acoustic variables such as frequency, amplitude, and timbre can significantly enhance the effectiveness of gait interventions.
• Personalised auditory cues based on individual gait characteristics can improve intervention effectiveness and patient comfort.
• Real-time sonification provides valuable feedback, encouraging long-term adherence and engagement in rehabilitation.

Why is this important?

The findings of this research are crucial as they document the current use of sonification within gait rehabilitation but also explore the impact of acoustic variables and their manipulation on said treatment. This could lead to significant advancements in the treatment and quality of life for patients with Parkinson’s Disease and similar conditions, marking a shift towards more personalized, engaging, technology-driven rehabilitation methods.

How were people/community groups/patients involved in this work?

As this is a review, no people with Parkinson’s were directly involved but studies included in the review did have people with Parkinson’s involved.

Key recommendations

• Further explore sonification techniques for individual gait characteristics.
• Further the impact of different acoustic variables on rehabilitation effectiveness.
• Conduct clinical trials to validate the effectiveness of sonification in gait rehabilitation.
• Develop user-friendly and engaging sonification tools for long-term adherence.

What’s next?

I am in the second year of my PhD, where my PhD project is specifically about the development and use of a smartphone application to provide personalised/sonified music cueing to individuals with Parkinson’s for rehabilitation purposes. I am going to recruiting people with Parkinson’s over the next year or so to validate the technology and the overall rehabilitation approach.

Get in touch about this research

Lead researcher name: Conor Wall

Email address: [email protected]

Twitter handle: @ConorWall96

Read the full paper: Sensors, December 2023