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A within-subject comparative study of walking while wearing low-heeled sports shoes versus high-heeled dress shoes was performed to identify and describe changes in lower-extremity joint kinetics associated with wearing high-heeled shoes during level overground walking. A volunteer sample of 15 unimpaired female subjects recruited from the local community underwent quantitative measurement of sagittal and frontal plane lower-extremity joint function, including angular motion, muscular moment, power, and work. When walking in high-heeled shoes, a significant reduction in ankle plantar flexor muscle moment, power, and work occurred during the stance phase, whereas increased work was performed by the hip flexor muscles during the transition from stance to swing. In the frontal plane, increased hip and knee varus moments were present. These differences demonstrate that walking in high-heeled shoes alters lower-extremity joint kinetic function. Reduced effectiveness of the ankle plantar flexors during late stance results in a compensatory enhanced hip flexor "pull-off" that assists in limb advancement during the stance-to-swing transition. Larger muscle moments and increased work occur at the hip and knee, which may predispose long-term wearers of high-heeled shoes to musculoskeletal pain.

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We carried out experiments on young adult macaque monkeys (M.fascicularis) in an attempt to establish whether or not primates possess a locomotor control system consisting of spinal pattern generators modulated by brain-stem locomotor regions. We could not induce 'spinal stepping' in our subjects after spinal cord transection. Sparing of pathways contained in the central sector of the white matter of the cord was sufficient for stepping and walking. 'Controlled locomotion' was elicited in thalamic monkeys by electrical stimulation of the posterior subthalamic region or the midbrain tegmentum just ventral to the inferior colliculi. We conclude that there are significant homologies between this primate species and the cat regarding the probable existence of supraspinal locomotor control structures, but it seems that the presumed spinal step generators in monkeys depend more on supraspinal inputs than they do in cats.