Neurological Diseases and Their Effects on Gait: The Hidden Language of Moving

Every year, more than 10 million people worldwide are diagnosed with neurodegenerative diseases.
For many, the first silent symptom was a subtle change in their walking pattern—changes that often appear years before other symptoms.

Scroll Down for a Closer Look

Use the controls below to compare the walking paths of different diseases.

Walking Path Comparison

Disease 1
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Disease 2
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A Closer Look at Walking Stride Patterns

This visualization compares the walking paths of individuals with different neurological conditions. This graph shows the stride of each step, highlighting the differences in gait patterns between conditions and severities.

This is a closer look of what you saw above. The color-coded stride paths are provided to help visualize gate patterns along with trails.

For an extreme example of a large difference, try comparing 'Parkingson's (Middle Stage)' with a Healthy individual. It's the most extreme case we have a 'short shuffling' gait pattern. Other irregularities in strides can be spotted among our other selections as well. See if you can spot them!




Another View Below

Gait Cycle Visualization

The animation on the right shows a top-down view of walking strides seen above. This perspective helps visualize the timing and rhythm of steps to spot rhythmic irregularities.

The transparent reference stride allows for direct comparison between different cases, making subtle differences in gait patterns more apparent.

Select different conditions from the dropdown to observe how neurological diseases affect the timing, symmetry, and consistency of the gait cycle. Note how healthy individuals maintain consistent timing between steps, while those with neurological conditions often show irregularities in their stride timing indicating shorter steps.

Top-Down View of Walking Strides