Altered gait speed and brain network connectivity in Parkinson’s disease

Abstract Slow gait speed and disrupted brain network connectivity are common in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). This study aimed to clarify the relationship between gait speed and clinical characteristics in PD, and explore the underlying brain network mechanisms. Forty-two PD patients and 20 healthy controls (HC) were recruited. Statistical independent component analysis and correlation analysis were employed to investigate underlying neural mechanisms and relationships. PD patients exhibited significantly slower gait speed, which showed a significant negative correlation with postural instability and gait disturbance scores. Network connectivity analysis revealed decreased intranetwork functional connectivity (FC) within visual network (VN) and cerebellum network (CN), but increased internetwork FC between CN and both sensorimotor network (SMN) and frontoparietal network (FPN) in PD patients compared to HC. The slow gait speed PD subgroup demonstrated increased intranetwork FC within SMN and VN, along with decreased FC between VN and both FPN and default mode network. Correlation analyses revealed negative correlation between gait speed and FC of CN and positive correlation to FC of CN-SMN. Our study identified relationships between gait speed and clinical characteristics, and corresponding network connectivity alterations in PD patients, providing insights into the neural mechanisms underlying gait impairments in PD.