Is “Circling” Behavior in Humans Related to Postural Asymmetry?

Bestaven, Emma; Guillaud, Elvire; Cazalets, Jean‐René

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0043861

Cited by 24 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 39 publications

(66 reference statements)

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“…This suggests that hand dominance is not a factor in turning during stepping or in veering during walking without vision. For instance, no correlation was found between the direction of veering and handedness on blindfolded walking over a distance of up to 150 m [24]. In addition to this, the large within-and between-subject variability of the Fukuda test that we found could also explain the lack of correlation between these two factors.…”

Section: Correlations Between Dominance and Test Resultscontrasting

confidence: 61%

Fukuda and Babinski-Weil tests: Within-subject variability and test-retest reliability in nondisabled adults

Paquet¹,

Taillon-Hobson²,

Lajoie³

2014

J Rehabil Res Dev

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Abstract-The FukudaStepping Test and the Babinski-Weil test are clinical assessments that presumably reveal unilateral vestibular hypofunction. However, abnormal performances on both of these two tests have been found in nondisabled individuals. This study compared measures of lateral and longitudinal displacements and body rotation for both tests, as well as the within-subject variability and test-retest reliability of the measures. In addition, correlations between hand and foot dominance and these measures were studied. Fifty young, nondisabled participants performed three trials of the 100-step Fukuda test and three trials of the Babinski-Weil test. The testing session was repeated 7 d later (retest). Lateral displacement, body rotation, and within-subject variability of these two measures were larger on the Fukuda than the Babinski-Weil test. No difference in test-retest reliability was found between the two tests, and a significant correlation was found between body rotation on the Fukuda test and score on the Waterloo Footedness Questionnaire. There may have been smaller variability in results of the Babinski-Weil test because it contains fewer steps (36) than the 100-step Fukuda test. Future research should compare tests with an equal number of steps; in the meantime, the Babinski-Weil test seems to have better psychometric properties than the Fukuda test, at least in nondisabled individuals.

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Section: Correlations Between Dominance and Test Resultscontrasting

confidence: 61%

Fukuda and Babinski-Weil tests: Within-subject variability and test-retest reliability in nondisabled adults

Paquet¹,

Taillon-Hobson²,

Lajoie³

2014

J Rehabil Res Dev

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“…Locomotor handedness has been observed in humans (4,5). In these studies, subjects were asked to walk in a straight line in the absence of visual feedback, a task that proved difficult and resulted in subjects veering off course and circling.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, in the absence of visual feedback, people display clockwise or counterclockwise biases in their walking behavior (4). This "locomotor handedness" is uncorrelated to hand dominance or gross morphological asymmetry and instead may be due to asymmetries in the collection and processing of sensory information, resulting in individual locomotor biases with a neurological basis (4,5).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Neuronal control of locomotor handedness in Drosophila

Buchanan¹,

Kain²,

Bivort

2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

153

184

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Genetically identical individuals display variability in their physiology, morphology, and behaviors, even when reared in essentially identical environments, but there is little mechanistic understanding of the basis of such variation. Here, we investigated whether Drosophila melanogaster displays individual-toindividual variation in locomotor behaviors. We developed a new high-throughout platform capable of measuring the exploratory behavior of hundreds of individual flies simultaneously. With this approach, we find that, during exploratory walking, individual flies exhibit significant bias in their left vs. right locomotor choices, with some flies being strongly left biased or right biased. This idiosyncrasy was present in all genotypes examined, including wild-derived populations and inbred isogenic laboratory strains. The biases of individual flies persist for their lifetime and are nonheritable: i.e., mating two left-biased individuals does not yield left-biased progeny. This locomotor handedness is uncorrelated with other asymmetries, such as the handedness of gut twisting, leg-length asymmetry, and wing-folding preference. Using transgenics and mutants, we find that the magnitude of locomotor handedness is under the control of columnar neurons within the central complex, a brain region implicated in motor planning and execution. When these neurons are silenced, exploratory laterality increases, with more extreme leftiness and rightiness. This observation intriguingly implies that the brain may be able to dynamically regulate behavioral individuality.behavior | individuality | personality | circuit mapping | central complex H and dominance-better performance using either the left or right hand-is a familiar human trait, moderately heritable (1), and regulated by many genes (2), including those involved in general body symmetry (3). However, behavioral handedness in general, i.e., the preferential performance of a behavior on one side of the body or with a particular chiral twist, is a multifaceted phenomenon. For example, in the absence of visual feedback, people display clockwise or counterclockwise biases in their walking behavior (4). This "locomotor handedness" is uncorrelated to hand dominance or gross morphological asymmetry and instead may be due to asymmetries in the collection and processing of sensory information, resulting in individual locomotor biases with a neurological basis (4, 5).Handed behavioral tendencies specific to individuals are also prevalent throughout the animal kingdom and have been shown in species as disparate as mice (paw use) (6), octopi (eye use) (7), and tortoises (side rolled on during righting) (8). There is also evidence that, at the population mean level, some species of insects have handed behaviors and asymmetric neurophysiological patterns (9). However, there has been little investigation of the differences in handed behaviors among individuals of the same insect species, and the mechanisms by which asymmetries are instilled in behavior are unknown. Considering beha...

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“…When we are blindfolded or have no orientation cues, we walk rather in circles than in straight lines even if we wanted to [4][5][6]. Interestingly, whether or not the turning direction is a function of differences in leg lengths has been debated for decades [4,5,[7][8][9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Walking in circles: a modelling approach

Maus

Seyfarth

2014

J. R. Soc. Interface.

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Blindfolded or disoriented people have the tendency to walk in circles rather than on a straight line even if they wanted to. Here, we use a minimalistic walking model to examine this phenomenon. The bipedal spring-loaded inverted pendulum exhibits asymptotically stable gaits with centre of mass (CoM) dynamics and ground reaction forces similar to human walking in the sagittal plane. We extend this model into three dimensions, and show that stable walking patterns persist if the leg is aligned with respect to the body (here: CoM velocity) instead of a world reference frame. Further, we demonstrate that asymmetric leg configurations, which are common in humans, will typically lead to walking in circles. The diameter of these circles depends strongly on parameter configuration, but is in line with empirical data from human walkers. Simulation results suggest that walking radius and especially direction of rotation are highly dependent on leg configuration and walking velocity, which explains inconsistent veering behaviour in repeated trials in human data. Finally, we discuss the relation between findings in the model and implications for human walking.

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Is “Circling” Behavior in Humans Related to Postural Asymmetry?

Cited by 24 publications

References 39 publications

Fukuda and Babinski-Weil tests: Within-subject variability and test-retest reliability in nondisabled adults

Fukuda and Babinski-Weil tests: Within-subject variability and test-retest reliability in nondisabled adults

Neuronal control of locomotor handedness in Drosophila

Walking in circles: a modelling approach

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