The effect of light touch on balance control during overground walking in healthy young adults

Oates, AR; Unger, Janelle; Arnold, CM; Fung, Joyce; Lanovaz, Joel L.

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2017.e00484

Cited by 15 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Kinematic data were sampled at 100 Hz and low-pass filtered at 8 Hz using a 4 th order Butterworth filter [106]. Standing calibration trials were used to set up segmental coordinate systems which allowed for segmental centers of mass to be tracked via the reflective marker set.…”

Section: Kinematic Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating proactive balance control in individuals with incomplete spinal cord injury while walking on a known slippery surface

Bone

Arora

Musselman

et al. 2021

Neuroscience Letters

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Section: Kinematic Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating proactive balance control in individuals with incomplete spinal cord injury while walking on a known slippery surface

Bone

Arora

Musselman

et al. 2021

Neuroscience Letters

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“…Light contact with the bungee cords may have influenced gait, since a contact force of less than 1 Newton has been shown to reduce medial-lateral margin of stability variability during gait (A. Oates et al, 2017; A. R. Oates et al, 2020). The role of haptic input, specifically during split-belt adaptation, however, has not been studied extensively.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Incremental Visual Occlusion During Split-Belt Treadmill Walking Has No Gradient Effect on Adaptation or Retention

et al. 2021

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Split-belt treadmills have become an increasingly popular means of quantifying ambulation adaptability. Multiple sensory feedback mechanisms, including vision, contribute to task execution and adaptation success. No studies have yet explored visual feedback effects on locomotor adaptability across a spectrum of available visual information. In this study, we sought to better understand the effects of visual information on locomotor adaptation and retention by directly comparing incremental levels of visual occlusion. Sixty healthy young adults completed a split-belt adaptation protocol, including a baseline, asymmetric walking condition (adapt), a symmetric walking condition (de-adapt), and another asymmetric walking condition (re-adapt). We randomly assigned participants into conditions with varied visual occlusion (i.e., complete and lower visual field occlusion, or normal vision). We captured kinematic data, and outcome measures included magnitude of asymmetry, spatial and temporal contributions to step length asymmetry, variability of the final adapted pattern, and magnitude of adaptation. We used repeated measures and four-way MANOVAs to examine the influence of visual occlusion and walking condition. Participants with complete, compared to lower visual field visual occlusion displayed less consistency in their walking pattern, evident via increased step length standard deviation ( p = .007, d = 0.89), and compared to normal vision groups ( p = .003 d = 0.81). We found no other group differences, indicating that varying levels of visual occlusion did not significantly affect locomotor adaptation or retention. This study offers insight into the role vision plays in locomotor adaptation and retention with clinical utility for improving variability in step control.

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“…This might aid subjects in sensing their own lateral position on the treadmill and may result in a less variable ML walking position [36]. Changes in global dynamic stability have been reported when subjects are allowed to lightly touch a side rail while walking [80,81]. Light touch resulted in decreased ML COM sway and ML COM sway variability on a treadmill and ML MoS variability during overground walking, respectively.…”

Section: Body Weight Support Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mediolateral damping of an overhead body weight support system assists stability during treadmill walking

Bannwart

Bayer

Ignasiak

et al. 2020

J NeuroEngineering Rehabil

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Background: Body weight support systems with three or more degrees of freedom (3-DoF) are permissive and safe environments that provide unloading and allow unrestricted movement in any direction. This enables training of walking and balance control at an early stage in rehabilitation. Transparent systems generate a support force vector that is near vertical at all positions in the workspace to only minimally interfere with natural movement patterns. Patients with impaired balance, however, may benefit from additional mediolateral support that can be adjusted according to their capacity. An elegant solution for providing balance support might be by rendering viscous damping along the mediolateral axis via the software controller. Before use with patients, we evaluated if controlrendered mediolateral damping evokes the desired stability enhancement in able-bodied individuals. Methods: A transparent, cable-driven robotic body weight support system (FLOAT) was used to provide transparent body weight support with and without mediolateral damping to 21 able-bodied volunteers while walking at preferred gait velocity on a treadmill. Stability metrics reflecting resistance to small and large perturbations were derived from walking kinematics and compared between conditions and to free walking. Results: Compared to free walking, the application of body weight support per-se resulted in gait alterations typically associated with body weight support, namely increased step length and swing phase. Frontal plane dynamic stability, measured by kinematic variability and nonlinear dynamics of the center of mass, was increased under body weight support, indicating reduced balance requirements in both damped and undamped support conditions. Adding damping to the body weight support resulted in a greater increase of frontal plane stability. Conclusion: Adding mediolateral damping to 3-DoF body weight support systems is an effective method of increasing frontal plane stability during walking in able-bodied participants. Building on these results, adjustable mediolateral damping could enable therapists to select combinations of unloading and stability specifically for each patient and to adapt this in a task specific manner. This could extend the impact of transparent 3-DoF body weight support systems, enabling training of gait and active balance from an early time point onwards in the rehabilitation process for a wide range of mobility activities of daily life.

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The effect of light touch on balance control during overground walking in healthy young adults

Cited by 15 publications

References 30 publications

Investigating proactive balance control in individuals with incomplete spinal cord injury while walking on a known slippery surface

Investigating proactive balance control in individuals with incomplete spinal cord injury while walking on a known slippery surface

Incremental Visual Occlusion During Split-Belt Treadmill Walking Has No Gradient Effect on Adaptation or Retention

Mediolateral damping of an overhead body weight support system assists stability during treadmill walking

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