Neuromuscular BiomechanicsOpen OpportunitiesParkinson’s disease is one of the most common neurodegenerative movement disorders affecting over 10 million people worldwide. Symptoms like impaired gait and postural instability can cause falls and highly impair patients’ mobility. The consequences of falls include fractures, hospital admissions, loss of independence, fear of falls, social isolation and early mortality. Falls are cited as one of the worst aspects of PD and unfortunately few efficacious interventions are available. - Engineering and Technology, Medical and Health Sciences
- Master Thesis, Semester Project
| Parkinson's disease is a prevalent neurodegenerative condition in individuals over 60 years old. It results from impaired dopaminergic cells in the basal ganglia, leading to gait disturbances and reduced independence. While treatment options like dopamine replacement therapies and Deep-Brain Stimulation (DBS) exist, not all patients benefit from DBS. The lack of reliable biomarkers hampers understanding of surgical outcomes. A new DBS device enables wireless recording of subcortical brain activity, offering novel insights into Parkinson's subcortical activity. To explore personalized therapies, this study will measure the gait performance, neuro-activities like deep brain activity as well as electroencephalography (EEG) during walking in Parkinson's patients. Combining cortical (EEG) and subcortical (DBS) recordings aim to investigate comprehensive brain activity during pathological gait. - Information, Computing and Communication Sciences, Medical and Health Sciences
- Collaboration, Internship, Lab Practice, Master Thesis, Semester Project
| Currently, individuals at risk of falling are identified through clinic- and lab-based assessment of gait and movement function. These tests evaluate changes in motor skills in a steady environment free of disturbances, while most falls occur during real life environments with disturbances such as obstacles and uneven walking surfaces, thus they are not precise enough for the quantification of fall risk. A sensitive marker for fall risk can therefore be identified through assessing walking behavior in real-life. - Biomechanical Engineering, Clinical Sciences, Human Movement and Sports Science, Rehabilitation Engineering
- ETH Zurich (ETHZ), Internship, Master Thesis, Semester Project
| Current approaches available to mitigate fall risk in older adults have prejudiced emphasis on a) protective equipment such as walking aids, footwear etc., b) environmental modification b) physical therapy and exercise programs. Despite the efforts, the world’s population is ageing and falling in older adults are on the rise. As such, development of more effective interventions for reducing fall risk is a global research priority. Our team is working on a new approach based on auditory noise stimulation for inducing improvement in balance during walking and ultimately to reduce fall-risk in older adults. - Biomedical Engineering, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Human Movement and Sports Science, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
- Internship, Master Thesis, Semester Project
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