Cueing

In rehabilitation, cueing is the delivery of external sensory stimuli - visual, auditory, or somatosensory - that guide or trigger a motor action. Cueing is used most prominently in Parkinson's disease, where basal ganglia dysfunction impairs internally generated movement initiation and rhythm; external cues bypass the damaged circuit and engage alternative cerebellar-thalamo-cortical pathways. Common forms include rhythmic auditory stimulation (metronome beats, tempo-matched music), visual floor markers or projected lines, and vibrotactile pulses timed to the gait cycle. Cueing is also applied in stroke rehabilitation and in movement-disorder research more broadly.