Spatial variability and directional shifts in postural control in Parkinson’s disease

Individuals with Parkinson’s disease exhibit tremors, rigidity, and bradykinesia, disrupting normal movement variability and resulting in postural instability. This comprehensive study aimed to investigate the link between the temporal structure of postural sway variability and Parkinsonism by analyzing multiple datasets from young and older adults, including individuals with Parkinson’s disease, across various task conditions. We used the Oriented Fractal Scaling Component Analysis (OFSCA), which identifies minimal and maximal long-range correlations within the center of pressure time series, allowing for detecting directional changes in postural sway variability. The objective was to uncover the primary directions along which individuals exerted control during the posture. The results, as anticipated, revealed that healthy adults predominantly exerted control along two orthogonal directions, closely aligned with the anteroposterior (AP) and mediolateral (ML) axes. In stark contrast, older adults and individuals with Parkinson’s disease exhibited control along suborthogonal directions that notably diverged from the AP and ML axes. While older adults and those with Parkinson’s disease demonstrated a similar reduction in the angle between these two control directions compared to healthy older adults, their reliance on this suborthogonal angle concerning endogenous fractal correlations exhibited significant differences from the healthy aging cohort. Importantly, individuals with Parkinson’s disease did not manifest the sensitivity to destabilizing task settings observed in their healthy counterparts, affirming the distinction between Parkinson’s disease and healthy aging.