Local dynamic stability in temporal pattern of intersegmental coordination during various stride time and stride length combinations

For the regulation of walking speed, the central nervous system must select appropriate combinations of stride time and stride length (stride time–length combinations) and coordinate many joints or segments in the whole body. However, humans achieve both appropriate selection of stride time–length combinations and effortless coordination of joints or segments. Although this selection of stride time–length combination has been explained by minimized energy cost, it may also be explained by the stability of kinematic coordination. Therefore, we investigated the stability of kinematic coordination during walking across various stride time–length combinations. Whole body kinematic coordination was quantified as the kinematic synergies that represents the groups of simultaneously move segments (intersegmental coordination) and their activation patterns (temporal coordination). In addition, the maximum Lyapunov exponents were utilized to evaluate local dynamic stability. We calculated the maximum Lyapunov exponents in temporal coordination of kinematic synergies across various stride time–length combinations. The results showed that the maximum Lyapunov exponents of temporal coordination depended on stride time–length combinations. Moreover, the maximum Lyapunov exponents were high at fast walking speeds and very short stride length conditions. This result implies that fast walking speeds and very short stride length were associated with lower local dynamic stability of temporal coordination. We concluded that fast walking is associated with lower local dynamic stability of temporal coordination of kinematic synergies.