{"id":218521,"date":"2025-07-22T23:14:54","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T04:14:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/tailored-deep-brain-stimulation-improves-walking-in-parkinsons-disease"},"modified":"2025-07-22T23:14:54","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T04:14:54","slug":"tailored-deep-brain-stimulation-improves-walking-in-parkinsons-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/tailored-deep-brain-stimulation-improves-walking-in-parkinsons-disease","title":{"rendered":"Tailored deep brain stimulation improves walking in Parkinson\u2019s disease"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/tailored-deep-brain-stimulation-improves-walking-in-parkinsons-disease2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>For patients with Parkinson\u2019s disease, changes in their ability to walk can be dramatic. \u201cParkinson\u2019s gait,\u201d as it is often called, can include changes in step length and asymmetry between legs. This gait dysfunction reduces a person\u2019s mobility, increases fall risk, and significantly impacts a patient\u2019s quality of life.<\/p>\n<p>While <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/tags\/high-frequency\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">high-frequency<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/tags\/deep+brain+stimulation\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">deep brain stimulation<\/a> (DBS) is highly effective for lessening symptoms of tremors, rigidity, and bradykinesia (the slowing of movement), its impact on gait has been more variable and less predictable among patients with advanced gait-related problems. Significant challenges in enhancing DBS outcomes for advanced gait disorders have included the lack of a standardized gait metric for clinicians to use during programming, as well as understanding the impact of different stimulation factors on gait.<\/p>\n<p>In a recent study, researchers at UCSF developed a systematic way to quantify key aspects of gait relevant to Parkinson\u2019s and used machine learning to identify the best DBS settings for each individual. These personalized settings led to meaningful improvements in walking, such as faster, more stable steps, without worsening other symptoms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For patients with Parkinson\u2019s disease, changes in their ability to walk can be dramatic. \u201cParkinson\u2019s gait,\u201d as it is often called, can include changes in step length and asymmetry between legs. This gait dysfunction reduces a person\u2019s mobility, increases fall risk, and significantly impacts a patient\u2019s quality of life. While high-frequency deep brain stimulation (DBS) [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-218521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-robotics-ai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218521\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}