Supraspinal Contributions to the Control of Human Locomotion: Clinical and Fundamental Aspects

Supraspinal Contributions to the Control of Human Locomotion: Clinical and Fundamental Aspects

Many neurological patients express enhanced deficits while walking in a dark room (or during the night): the supraspinal structures involved in this navigational deficit have not been identified yet. In this project, the investigators will study post-stroke gaits of human patients and compare them to those of a control population during a goal-oriented task performed in different visual conditions.

The investigators want to test the hypothesis that during simple goal-oriented locomotor tasks, only patients with specific (e.g. medio or infero- temporal) lesions will express navigational deficits.

Inclusion Criteria (for matching controls):

• Adult male and female subjects (18-->85 years old)

Exclusion Criteria (for matching controls):

• Persons with history of an acquired or congenital neurological disorder, e.g. stroke, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson disease, increased intracranial pressure, etc.;
• Persons injured at the time of the experiments (fractures,…);
• Persons having reported repetitive spatial troubles/disorders;
• Persons with eye disorders and non-corrected vision problems;
• Pregnant women.