TY - JOUR
T1 - Short-term effects of the repeated exposure to trip-like perturbations on inter-segment coordination during walking
T2 - An ucm analysis
AU - Monaco, Vito
AU - Zabban, Clara
AU - Miyake, Tamon
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: This work was supported by: the “Graduate Program for Embodiment Informatics” of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan; the EU Commission through the H2020 project CYBERLEGs Plus (Grant Agreement no. 731931); the Italian National Institute for Insurance against accidents at work (INAIL) within the MOTU project (PPR-AI 1-2); Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (19J14599); institutional funds of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa, Italy.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2021/10/1
Y1 - 2021/10/1
N2 - The minimum toe clearance (MTC) results from the coordination of all bilateral lower limb body segments, i.e., a redundant kinematic chain. We tested the hypothesis that repeated exposure to trip-like perturbations induces a more effective covariation of limb segments during steady walking, in accordance with the uncontrolled manifold (UCM) theory, to minimize the MTC across strides. Twelve healthy young adults (mean age 26.2 ± 3.3 years) were enrolled. The experimental protocol consisted of three identical trials, each involving three phases carried outin succession: steady walking (baseline), managing trip-like perturbations, and steady walking (post-perturbation). Lower limb kinematics collected during both steady walking phases wereanalyzed in the framework of the UCM theory to test the hypothesis that the reduced MTC variability following the perturbation can occur, in conjunction with more effective organization of the redundant lower limb segments. Results revealed that, after the perturbation, the synergy underlying lower limb coordination becomes stronger. Accordingly, the short-term effects of the repeated exposure to perturbations modify the organization of the redundant lower limb-related movements. In addition, results confirm that the UCM theory is a promising tool for exploring the effectiveness of interventions aimed at purposely modifying motor behaviors.
AB - The minimum toe clearance (MTC) results from the coordination of all bilateral lower limb body segments, i.e., a redundant kinematic chain. We tested the hypothesis that repeated exposure to trip-like perturbations induces a more effective covariation of limb segments during steady walking, in accordance with the uncontrolled manifold (UCM) theory, to minimize the MTC across strides. Twelve healthy young adults (mean age 26.2 ± 3.3 years) were enrolled. The experimental protocol consisted of three identical trials, each involving three phases carried outin succession: steady walking (baseline), managing trip-like perturbations, and steady walking (post-perturbation). Lower limb kinematics collected during both steady walking phases wereanalyzed in the framework of the UCM theory to test the hypothesis that the reduced MTC variability following the perturbation can occur, in conjunction with more effective organization of the redundant lower limb segments. Results revealed that, after the perturbation, the synergy underlying lower limb coordination becomes stronger. Accordingly, the short-term effects of the repeated exposure to perturbations modify the organization of the redundant lower limb-related movements. In addition, results confirm that the UCM theory is a promising tool for exploring the effectiveness of interventions aimed at purposely modifying motor behaviors.
KW - Minimum toe clearance
KW - Perturbation
KW - Repeated exposure
KW - Tripping
KW - Uncontrolled manifold
KW - Walking
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U2 - 10.3390/app11209663
DO - 10.3390/app11209663
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85117299578
SN - 2076-3417
VL - 11
JO - Applied Sciences (Switzerland)
JF - Applied Sciences (Switzerland)
IS - 20
M1 - 9663
ER -