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. More recently, kinesia paradoxa is also being used to treat children with Asperger's syndrome.
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These all improve the mobility of a person and help improve their quality of life. They are able to complete more household tasks independently, since movements through doorways and hallways is easier, as well as participate in activities within the community. People suffering from Parkinson’s disease often tend to experience some form of depression after diagnosis, but with kinesia paradoxa this could be overcome. Kinesia paradoxa also seems to be one of the better forms of treatment or management strategy used compared to the other available options.
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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. 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.
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Once FOG occurs, it is often very difficult for a person to fight it and immediately return to normal walking, so kinesia paradoxa must be stimulated before this occurs to prevent it all together. Contrast, size of the cue, loudness of the cue, and many more features must be analyzed in order to determine the most effect method to stimulate kinesia paradoxa for a person. Each person will respond to each cue differently, so great exploration and experimentation must be completed before finding the optimal method. Below specific examples of visual cues, auditory cues, and methods of attention focusing are discussed in great deal focusing on the benefits and concerns of each method.
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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.
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Additional firing within the brain could be a possible explanation to these improved movements. Possible genotype A possible genotype might make an individual more likely to be able to stimulate kinesia paradoxa, but currently there is no current research on this idea. It is difficult to support this idea with scientific research.
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There is currently no known mechanism to explain kinesia paradoxa, but it is believed to be a normal property of the motor system. The reasoning behind the sudden movement is still very unclear and a variable topic of research that has not yet been studied electrophysiologically.Evatt, Marian. M.D. Assistant Professor of Neurology at Emory University and Assistant Chief of Neurology.
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Internal cueing is often noted to be the first to disappear, but persons with Parkinson's disease are usually still able to elicit external cues.Schmidt, W. J. (2005). Dopamine and Glutamate in Motor and Cognitive Symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease. In W. J. Schmidt & M. E. A. Reith (Eds.) Available from Due to this some form of external cue is necessary to stimulate kinesia paradoxa.
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Since little information is known about kinesia paradoxa it is still being researched in great detail. Current research is being performed to try and narrow down a single hypothesis explaining the mechanism. New methods to stimulate the phenomenon are also being explored. Specifically, the virtual cueing spectacles are being tested to become a permanent method for individuals to wear at all times to overcome problems in mobility.
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Circuits in the brain Visual cues are believed to activate specific motor pathways in the brain. These pathways allow the damaged circuits from Parkinson's to be bypassed, resulting in normal motor function. Cerebellar sensory-motor pathway are currently being explored to try and prove this hypothesis. Part of the initiation, not the pathway If the circuits in the brain do not play a role in stimulating kinesia paradoxa, the initiation of this stimulation should be explored to be a possible explanation.
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They often suffer from social isolation because they are embarrassed by their symptoms or their symptoms prevent them from leaving their home. As symptoms worsen, almost always is there a decrease in physical activity, which puts these individuals at a greater risk for many other diseases such as heart disease. Through kinesia paradoxa a patient is able to dramatically improve their walking ability, with improvements in one or even all aspects of walking. Improvements include larger stride length, more fluid movements, increase arm swing, decreased shuffling of steps, less incidents of FOG, and fewer LOBs.
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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. LOBs are when a person has difficulty maintaining an upright position and lose their balance, eventually leading to them falling. 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.
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Kinesia paradoxa can very easily be stimulated by visual and auditory cues, but there is an additional method that does not require any external cues. By having an individual focus all their attention on walking or another movement, they are sometimes able to control akinesia in its early stages. For example, in a common household akinesia is much more common because the patient is not only focusing on their walking because of the excess of additional distractions in the home. Often eliminating some of these distractions and learning to focus all attention on walking can help improve mobility.
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