Research group Neurological gait impairments

Aims

Scientific inspiration emerges during daily clinical practice: we may struggle to diagnose a gait pattern, search for the most optimal treatment, and often get inspired by patients’ stories or compensatory tricks.

We study the emerged questions and hypotheses, when needed using out-of-the-box methods, and always in close collaboration with patients. It is our vision that working at the intersection of disciplines is necessary to progress. Our team is diverse in educational background, as are our collaborators.

Our work focuses on five patient populations:

• Parkinson’s disease
• Rare and inherited movement disorders
• Stroke
• Hereditary motor and sensory neuropathies
• Functional gait impairments.

Within these populations, we focus on diagnosis, management, and pathogenesis and neuronal compensation.

To maximize our impact, we put a lot of energy in writing top-level publications, but also in dissemination and education: to a clinical and scientific audience, as well as to the lay public.

Achievements

Our research aims to achieve a mechanistic understanding of locomotor control in neurological disease and to translate these insights into personalised interventions. We have established an independent research line at the interface of rehabilitation, clinical neurology, experimental neuroscience, and movement science. Our work is structured along two complementary lines.

• Investigate gait impairments and neuronal compensation

  We investigate the pathophysiology of gait impairments and mechanisms of neuronal compensation. We developed a widely adopted framework describing compensation strategies in Parkinson’s disease, which we extended through large-scale international studies and experimental paradigms integrating gait and cognition. We further pioneered ambulatory EEG during walking, providing novel insights into how goal-directed cortical control supports locomotion when automatic processes fail.

• Translate mechanistic insights into clinical practice

  We translate mechanistic insights into clinical practice. We contributed to diagnostic and treatment frameworks across neurological disorders, including hereditary spastic paraplegia and freezing of gait in Parkinson’s disease. Movement analysis is central to both research lines, serving to:

  1. uncover mechanisms
  2. improve diagnosis
  3. evaluate treatment effects.

  Examples include the use of the split-belt paradigm in functional neurological disorders, the development of a biomechanical framework for stiff-knee gait after stroke, and the application of 3D gait analysis to evaluate ankle-foot surgery in stroke patients and novel assistive technologies, including a gyroscopically actuated, balance-assisting backpack for people with degenerative ataxia.

Publications

See the publication list of the research group leader on Web of Science.