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Tom, I do not want to appear argumentative, but I can't seem to match my experience to what you are saying. What am I missing? Tom Riess wrote: > The inability to produce the necessary stride length required by > the environment for walking at any given time is in my opinion a > perceptive (i.e. vision) or processing (i.e. vision processing) > problem in PD'ers. (The ways to overcome this is predominantly > vision mediated)... Short stride or shuffling gait is compensatory > for this perceived lack of available stride length. Yes, trouble keeping my balance can make me take shorter steps. But is this specifically a vision problem or a general balance problem, or perhaps a stiffness/bradykinesia problem as well? I don't think that I perceive a lack of available stride length. I still judge perceptually that I can step out fully, but I have learned that if I do so I begin to lose my balance in the process. So I shorten my stride. Since I got PD my vision hasn't declined, but my balance has. Isn't this therefore due to the vestibular or proprioceptive senses, and/or because I am too stiff or slow to respond to the experience of beginning to fall with timely compensating movements? The implication of having poor control of balance when the eyes are closed, which is where this topic started, is that the other senses which are involved in balance have lost much of their ability to function. > .... Balance problems occur when the environment suprises us > with a sudden need to decelerate, stop and maneuver. Yes. Now what about poor balance while simply standing still? When Don is standing and he closes his eyes, then he falls down. > Our velocity exceeds the ability of the short stride to safely > slow us down and so we appear out of balance and fall. I agree there seems to be some deficit in processing feedback from the senses. But perception of bodily velocity involves other senses than just vision. How would all this work for a PWP who is blind? Phil Tompkins