Thesis Project Form

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) manifests through a wide range of symptoms, including cognitive decline, muscle weakness, spasticity, and severe fatigue. The fatigue experienced by individuals with MS is markedly different from that of those without the condition, presenting considerable physical and psychological hurdles even in everyday tasks, like walking. Muscle fatigue significantly alters gait patterns, resulting in a noticeable shift in muscle activities. This change can affect the coordination, timing, and efficiency of movements, impairing overall mobility and performance. Additionally, walking in different environments has a significant impact on muscle activity and gait performance. Walking in water compared to walking overground affects muscle activity and fatigue by offering greater resistance, thereby increasing muscle engagement and leading to a quicker onset of fatigue. In this context, the aim is to observe how water-based gait protocol can impact muscle fatigue and gait patterns in individuals with MS respect to traditional assessment.

The primary objective of this study is to characterize the muscular activity in individuals with MS during gait exercises, such as the 6-minute walking test, performed in both dry and aquatic environments. Additionally, the study aims to investigate the impact of water on fatigue levels experienced by these individuals.
The main activities will consist in:
- Perform a muscle analysis of gait data collected in both environments
- identify how water influence the fatigue, muscle patterns and gait parameters
- evaluate how eventual modification in muscle activity might depend on fatigue and individuals’ pathology

Literature Review
Pipeline Development for Movement Segmentation, Analysis, and Characterization
Data Collection and Analysis