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Generalizability of foot placement control strategies during unperturbed and perturbed gait

Authors :
Chang Liu
Francisco J. Valero-Cuevas
James M. Finley
Source :
Royal Society Open Science, Vol 11, Iss 5 (2024)
Publication Year :
2024
Publisher :
The Royal Society, 2024.

Abstract

Control of foot placement is an essential strategy for maintaining balance during walking. During unperturbed, steady-state walking, foot placement can be accurately described as a linear function of the body’s centre of mass (CoM) state at midstance. However, it is uncertain if this mapping from CoM state to foot placement generalizes to larger perturbations that could potentially cause falls. Recovery from these perturbations may require reactive control strategies not observed during unperturbed walking. Here, we used unpredictable changes in treadmill belt speed to assess the generalizability of foot placement mappings identified during unperturbed walking. We found that foot placement mappings generalized poorly from unperturbed to perturbed walking and differed for forward perturbation versus backward perturbation. We also used the singular value decomposition of the mapping matrix to reveal that people were more sensitive to backward versus forward perturbations. Together, these results indicate that a single linear mapping cannot describe the foot placement control during both forward and backward losses of balance induced by treadmill belt speed perturbations. Better characterization of human balance control strategies could improve our understanding of why different neuromotor disorders result in heightened fall risk and inform the design of controllers for balance-assisting devices.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
20545703
Volume :
11
Issue :
5
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
Royal Society Open Science
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.33027b70f6743859f6411c463f1d067
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.231210