Rhythmic Auditory Stimulation in Gait Training for Patients with TBI

Hurt, C.P., Rice, R.R, McIntosh, G.C.,& Thaut, M.H. (1998). Rhythmic Auditory Stimulation in Gait Training for Patients with Traumatic Brain Injury. Journal of Music Therapy, 35(4), p. 228-241

Affiliations:
Center for Biomedical Research in Music, Colorado State University

Abstract:
Rhythmic auditory stimulation (RAS) was studied in a frequency entrainment design and as a therapeutic stimulus to facilitate gait patterns in 8 traumatically brain injured individuals (5 male/3 female; mean age 30 ± 5 years) with persisting gait disorder, 4–24 months postinjury During entrainment, with RAS frequency matched to baseline cadence, velocity and stride symmetry both increased by an average of 18%. Increases contributing to the velocity improvement were seen in both stride length (7%) and cadence (8%). With RAS acceterated 5% over the fast walking step rate of the patients, 5 patients could entrain to a higher step frequency. The 2 patients with the slowest baseline gait velocity could not entrain to faster RAS frequencies. After 5 weeks of daily RAS training, 5 patients’ mean velocity increased significantly (p < .05) by 51% (38.8 m/min to 57.6 m/min; p < .43). Cadence (+16%) and stride length (+29%) also showed statistically significant improvement. Stride symmetry improved nonsignificantly by 12%.

Keywords:
Music Therapy, Body movements, Physical Therapy, Rhythm, Brain damage, Brain activity

Weblink:
http://jmt.oxfordjournals.org.proxy1.lib.uwo.ca/content/35/4/228
doi: 10.1093/jmt/35.4.228