Is conservation of center of mass mechanics a priority in human walking? Insights from leg-length asymmetry experiments

McDonald, Kirsty A.; Devaprakash, Daniel; Rubenson, Jonas

doi:10.1242/jeb.195172

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 81 publications

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“…Notably, we observed gait changes during baseline walking (i.e. both feet moving at the same speed) with the motorized shoes that were consistent with other studies showing that shoe weight (Ochsmann et al, 2016) and height (McDonald et al, 2019) alter walking movements. In addition, the rigidity of the motorized shoes' soles (Chiou et al, 2012) is another factor that might contribute to the differences that we observed in joint angles during baseline walking.…”

Section: Study Implicationssupporting

confidence: 90%

Motorized Shoes Induce Robust Sensorimotor Adaptation in Walking

Aucie

Zhang²,

Sargent

et al. 2020

Front. Neurosci.

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The motor system has the flexibility to update motor plans according to systematic changes in the environment or the body. This capacity is studied in the laboratory through sensorimotor adaptation paradigms imposing sustained and predictable motor demands specific to the task at hand. However, these studies are tied to the laboratory setting. Thus, we asked if a portable device could be used to elicit locomotor adaptation outside the laboratory. To this end, we tested the extent to which a pair of motorized shoes could induce similar locomotor adaptation to split-belt walking, which is a well-established sensorimotor adaptation paradigm in locomotion. We specifically compared the adaptation effects (i.e. after-effects) between two groups of young, healthy participants walking with the legs moving at different speeds by either a split-belt treadmill or a pair of motorized shoes. The speeds at which the legs moved in the splitbelt group was set by the belt speed under each foot, whereas in the motorized shoes group were set by the combined effect of the actuated shoes and the belts' moving at the same speed. We found that the adaptation of joint motions and measures of spatial and temporal asymmetry, which are commonly used to quantify sensorimotor adaptation in locomotion, were indistinguishable between groups. We only found small differences in the joint angle kinematics during baseline walking between the groupspotentially due to the weight and height of the motorized shoes. Our results indicate that robust sensorimotor adaptation in walking can be induced with a paired of motorized shoes, opening the exciting possibility to study sensorimotor adaptation during more realistic situations outside the laboratory.

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Section: Study Implicationssupporting

confidence: 90%

Motorized Shoes Induce Robust Sensorimotor Adaptation in Walking

Aucie

Zhang²,

Sargent

et al. 2020

Front. Neurosci.

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“…We found a few differences in joint motions when walking with our motorized shoes during regular walking, which will be useful for future designs of this portable device. Notably, we observed gait changes during baseline walking (i.e., both feet moving at the same speed) with the motorized shoes that were consistent with other studies showing that shoe weight (Ochsmann et al, 2016) and height (McDonald et al, 2019) alter walking movements. In addition, the rigidity of the motorized shoes’ soles (Chiou et al, 2012)is another factor that might contribute to the differences that we observed in joint angles during baseline walking.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Motorized shoes induce robust sensorimotor adaptation in walking

Torres-Oviedo

Aucie²,

Sargent

et al. 2019

Preprint

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“…They also completed a further six trials, also of 5 min duration, wearing one normal shoe and one custom-made platform-shoe with an additional foam sole attachment equal to 10.5 ± 0.5% of the participant's lower limb length (the 'perturbed' condition; modified Volley, Brand Collective, Australia; figure 1). This perturbation has previously been shown to disrupt lower limb kinematics and kinetics [18]. The total mass of the normal footwear was standardized to the platform shoe using packages of small lead weights secured to the shoe's canvas upper.…”

Section: Experimental Protocolmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Specifically, we aimed to determine how a continuous mechanical gait perturbation, imposed through asymmetrical leg lengths, acutely impacts gait energetics and speed error regulatory performance. This perturbation was chosen as it had the potential to disrupt both energetics and speed error regulation [18], and, as such, observed behaviours could provide insight into acute multi-factor control strategies. Given that matching the treadmill's speed is a critical requirement to mitigate an immediate task-level failure, we hypothesized that the PWS in the disrupted condition would be the speed at which stride-to-stride speed errors would be most successfully regulated; therefore, speed error would be minimized by acute PWS selection in the perturbed condition as opposed to COT.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-objective control in human walking: insight gained through simultaneous degradation of energetic and motor regulation systems

McDonald

Cusumano

Peeling

et al. 2019

J. R. Soc. Interface.

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Minimization of metabolic energy is considered a fundamental principle of human locomotion, as demonstrated by an alignment between the preferred walking speed (PWS) and the speed incurring the lowest metabolic cost of transport. We aimed to (i) simultaneously disrupt metabolic cost and an alternate acute task requirement, namely speed error regulation, and (ii) assess whether the PWS could be explained on the basis of either optimality criterion in this new performance and energetic landscape. Healthy adults ( N = 21) walked on an instrumented treadmill under normal conditions and, while negotiating a continuous gait perturbation, imposed leg-length asymmetry. Oxygen consumption, motion capture data and ground reaction forces were continuously recorded for each condition at speeds ranging from 0.6 to 1.8 m s −1 , including the PWS. Both metabolic and speed regulation measures were disrupted by the perturbation ( p < 0.05). Perturbed PWS selection did not exhibit energetic prioritization (although we find some indication of energy minimization after motor adaptation). Similarly, PWS selection did not support prioritization of speed error regulation, which was found to be independent of speed in both conditions. It appears that, during acute exposure to a mechanical gait perturbation of imposed leg-length asymmetry, humans minimize neither energetic cost nor speed regulation errors. Despite the abundance of evidence pointing to energy minimization during normal, steady-state gait, this may not extend acutely to perturbed gait. Understanding how the nervous system acutely controls gait perturbations requires further research that embraces multi-objective control paradigms.

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Is conservation of center of mass mechanics a priority in human walking? Insights from leg-length asymmetry experiments

Cited by 5 publications

References 81 publications

Motorized Shoes Induce Robust Sensorimotor Adaptation in Walking

Motorized Shoes Induce Robust Sensorimotor Adaptation in Walking

Motorized shoes induce robust sensorimotor adaptation in walking

Multi-objective control in human walking: insight gained through simultaneous degradation of energetic and motor regulation systems

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