Project R-12222

Multi-dimensional investigation of mobility related fatigability in persons with multiple sclerosis, and effects of cognitive-motor interventions. (Research)

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease characterized to induce several symptoms, including fatigue. Fatigue is highly prevalent in people with MS (pwMS), being one of the most debilitating symptoms reported by this population (e.g., almost 90% experience or have experience fatigue due MS). In the same line, fatigability, which is defined as a decrement on performance in a given task, is also higher prevalent in pwMS and affects both motor and cognition domains. Also, there is no study addressing rehabilitation programs in order to decrease or mitigate motor fatigability in pwMS. Thus, using several biomechanical, neurophysiological and psychometrical approaches the project aims to i) using virtual reality environment (GRAIL) investigate how motor fatigability impacts the biomechanical adaptations, what is the relationship with cognition and what is the relationship with neurophysiologic measures during gait with virtual obstacles negotiation; ii) investigate the relationship of neurophysiological domains with fatigability during stepping movement on tiles (AMPEL system) and peforming attentional control using simple tasks (e.g., vigilance tasks) and dual-task paradigms; iii) with sensors, we aim to measure some mobility test in fixed protocols with repeated movements (e.g., sit-to-stance task) and measures changes over the time; iv) using a mixed quantitative-qualitative approach and measures of cognitive and motor fatigability, we would like to understand the ecological validity of fatigability measures in relation to perceived fatigue and real-life performance; v) offer a laboratory/clinic and unsupervised homebased cognitive-motor rehabilitation program focusing in pwMS with fatigability. Five work packages (WP) will be developed for this project. For WP 1, 2 and 4 we expect to include 30 pwMS with, and 30 pwMS without motor fatigability. For WP 3 only 10 pwMS will be included and for WP 5, 30 pwMS with motor fatigability (difference of 10% from the distance performed in the minute 6 to the minute 1 on the 6-minute walking test), randomized in 2 groups.

01 October 2021 - 31 October 2022