Stepping Responses in Young and Older Adults Following a Perturbation to the Support Surface During Gait

McIntosh, Emily I.; Zettel, John; Vallis, Lori Ann

doi:10.1080/00222895.2016.1204262

Cited by 21 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 24 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In contrast to our expectations based on previous studies [ 6 , 7 , 44 , 47 ], we did not find any differences in perturbation effects and recovery responses between young and older adults. This may be explained by the fact that most of our older adults were recruited through fitness classes and therefore very fit and healthy.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

“…Successful recovery from a perturbation is determined by the combination of stability prior and in response to the perturbation. By proactively increasing gait stability, one might reduce the effect of the perturbation and minimize risk of falling [ 44 – 46 ]. Although we did not aim to evaluate such adaptations, the data revealed that participants proactively adapted their gait pattern.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Gait stability in response to platform, belt, and sensory perturbations in young and older adults

Roeles

Rowe

Bruijn

et al. 2018

Med Biol Eng Comput

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Perturbation-based gait assessment has been used to quantify gait stability in older adults. However, knowledge on which perturbation type is most suitable to identify poor gait stability is lacking. We evaluated the effects of ipsi- and contra-lateral sway, belt acceleration and deceleration, and visual and auditory perturbations on medio-lateral (ML) and anterior-posterior (AP) margins of stability (MoS) in young and older adults. We aimed to evaluate (1) which perturbation type disturbed the gait pattern substantially, (2) how participants recovered, and (3) whether recovery responses could discriminate between young and older adults. Nine young (25.1 ± 3.4 years) and nine older (70.1 ± 7.6 years) adults walked on the CAREN Extended (Motek BV, The Netherlands). The perturbation effect was quantified by deviation in MoS over six post-perturbation steps compared to baseline walking. Contra-lateral sway and deceleration perturbations resulted in the largest ML (1.9–4 times larger than other types) and AP (1.6–5.6 times larger than other types) perturbation effects, respectively. After both perturbation types, participants increased MoS by taking wider, shorter, and faster steps. No differences between young and older adults were found. We suggest to evaluate the potential of using contra-lateral sway and deceleration perturbations for fall risk identification by including both healthy and frail older adults. Graphical abstractMargins of stability during steady state (left) and perturbed (right) gait to quantify reactive gait stability in response to various perturbation types in young and older adults. Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s11517-018-1855-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

show abstract

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gait stability in response to platform, belt, and sensory perturbations in young and older adults

Roeles

Rowe

Bruijn

et al. 2018

Med Biol Eng Comput

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Another aspect concerns the differences between-age groups in the spatial characteristics of the first step. The shorter and lower step showed by older participants following the perturbation is in line with findings from previous studies focusing on reactive stepping following mediolateral perturbations during standing and walking in place (Maki et al 2000a, b), steady-state walking (McIntosh et al 2017) and gait initiation (Shulman et al 2018). As also suggested in these studies, these changes in step characteristics may reflect the need for a more cautious stepping strategy to reduce the risk of losing balance and falling .…”

Section: Biomechanical Adjustments Relevant To Increase First-step Stsupporting

confidence: 90%

Age differences in anticipatory and executory mechanisms of gait initiation following unexpected balance perturbations

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose An age-related decline in anticipatory postural mechanisms has been reported during gait initiation; however, it is unclear whether such decline may jeopardize whole-body stability following unexpected balance perturbations. This study aimed to compare young and older individuals’ ability to generate postural responses and preserve stability in response to external waist perturbations delivered within gait initiation. Methods Ten young and ten older participants performed 10 gait initiation trials followed by 48 unperturbed and 12 perturbed trials in a random order. A stereophotogrammetric system and three force platforms were used to quantify mechanical parameters from the preparatory phase (e.g., timing and amplitude of postural adjustments) and from the stepping phase (e.g., step characteristics and dynamic stability). Activation patterns of lower leg muscles were determined by surface electromyography. Results Older participants responded to perturbation with lower increase in both magnitude (p < 0.001; η2p = 0.62) and duration (p = 0.001; η2p = 0.39) of preparatory parameters and soleus muscle activity (p < 0.001; η2p = 0.55), causing shorter (p < 0.001; η2p = 0.59) and lower (p < 0.001; η2p = 0.43) stepping, compared to young participants. Interestingly, young participants showed greater correlations between preparatory phase parameters and dynamic stability of the first step than older participants (average r of − 0.40 and − 0.06, respectively). Conclusion The results suggest that young participants took more time than older to adjust the anticipatory biomechanical response to perturbation attempting to preserve balance during stepping. In contrast, older adults were unable to modify their anticipatory adjustments in response to perturbation and mainly relied on compensatory mechanisms attempting to preserve stability via a more cautious stepping strategy.

show abstract

“…Perturbations in one direction often elicit responses perpendicular to the perturbation direction (Madehkhaksar et al 2018; Martelli et al 2016; O’Connor and Kuo 2009; Vlutters et al 2018) as responses between the sagittal and frontal planes are dynamically coupled (Bauby and Kuo 2000; Buurke et al 2020). Medial-lateral perturbations are often more challenging than the anterior-posterior perturbations (Madehkhaksar et al 2018; McIntosh et al 2017) because medial-lateral balance requires active control during walking (Rankin et al 2014; Reimold et al 2020). In our study, medial-lateral perturbations were not more challenging than the anterior-posterior perturbations, which could be related to the magnitude of the shifts.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Perturbations during walking can induce potential losses of balance and elicit corrective locomotor adaptations, which are useful for understanding human balance control (Mansfield et al 2015; Torres-Oviedo et al 2011). There are multiple approaches to perturb gait stability, including split-belt walking (Buurke et al 2018; Torres-Oviedo et al 2011), visual flow distortions (Franz et al 2016; O’Connor and Kuo 2009), waist pulling (Hof et al 2010; Vlutters et al 2018), platform displacements (Afschrift et al 2018; McIntosh et al 2017), and rapid changes in treadmill belt speed (Debelle et al 2020; Patel and Bhatt 2018). Studies using discrete perturbations such as waist pulling, platform displacements, and changes in treadmill belt speeds often apply the perturbation once out of every 5-20 strides (Afschrift et al 2018; Debelle et al 2020; Hof et al 2010; McIntosh et al 2017; Patel and Bhatt 2018; Vlutters et al 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Small Directional Treadmill Perturbations Induce Differential Gait Stability Adaptation

Huang

2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Introducing unexpected perturbations to challenge gait stability is an effective approach to investigate balance control strategies. Little is known about the extent to which people can respond to small perturbations during walking. This study aimed to determine how subjects adapted gait stability to multidirectional perturbations with small magnitudes applied on a stride-by-stride basis. Ten healthy young subjects walked on a treadmill that either briefly decelerated belt speed ("stick"), accelerated belt speed ("slip"), or shifted the platform medial-laterally at right leg mid-stance. We quantified gait stability adaptation in both anterior-posterior and medial-lateral directions using margin of stability and its components, base of support and extrapolated center of mass. Gait stability was disrupted upon initially experiencing the small perturbations as margin of stability decreased in the stick, slip, and medial shift perturbations and increased in the lateral shift perturbation. Gait stability metrics were generally disrupted more for perturbations in the coincident direction. As subjects adapted their margin of stability using feedback strategies in response to the small perturbations, subjects primarily used base of support (foot placement) control in the stick and lateral shift perturbations and extrapolated center of mass control in the slip and medial shift perturbations. Gait stability metrics adapted to perturbations in both anterior-posterior and medial-lateral directions. These findings provide new knowledge about the extent of gait stability adaptation to small magnitude perturbations applied on a stride-by-stride basis and reveal potential new approaches for balance training interventions to target foot placement and center of mass control.

show abstract

Stepping Responses in Young and Older Adults Following a Perturbation to the Support Surface During Gait

Cited by 21 publications

References 24 publications

Gait stability in response to platform, belt, and sensory perturbations in young and older adults

Gait stability in response to platform, belt, and sensory perturbations in young and older adults

Age differences in anticipatory and executory mechanisms of gait initiation following unexpected balance perturbations

Small Directional Treadmill Perturbations Induce Differential Gait Stability Adaptation

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About