Decomposing the Effects of Familiarity with Music Cues on Stride Length and Variability in Persons with Parkinson's Disease: On the Role of Covariates

This study aimed to determine the role of cognitive and affective responses to music cues in modulating the effects of familiarity with music on stride length and stride-to-stride variability in people with Parkinson's disease (PD). Using multilevel modeling, people with PD's spatiotemporal gait parameters and self-reported ratings of familiarity, enjoyment, cognitive and physical demand, beats salience of music cues after each walking trial, as well as music reward, were analyzed. Our findings indicate that (1) condition-varying perceived enjoyment and beat salience are positively associated with increased stride length; (2) participants with a greater music reward for mood regulation and emotion evocation show greater stride length changes compared with those with less music reward; (3) condition-varying perceived enjoyment is positively associated with decreases in stride-to-stride variability; and (4) participants with lower cognitive demand of walking with music cues and higher beat salience show lower stride-to-stride variability compared with those with higher cognitive demand and lower beat salience. These results provide behavioral evidence of independent and interactive influences of cognitive and affective responses to music cues on spatiotemporal gait parameters in people with PD.