doi:10.1016/S0304-3940(02)00158-1      

Copyright © 2002 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Does postural instability affect the initiation of human gait?

Paul Fiolkowski, Denis Brunt, Mark Bishop and Raymond Woo

Department of Physical Therapy, University of Florida, P.O. Box 100154 HSC, Gainesville, FL 32610-0154, USA

University of Florida McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610-0154, USA

Department of Orthopedics and Rehabilitation, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610-0154, USA

Received 8 May 2001;  revised 18 July 2001;  accepted 1 November 2001.  Available online 5 March 2002. 

Abstract

During gait initiation (GI), decoupling of the center of mass and center of pressure allows the center of mass to fall forwards. Subjects initiated gait rapidly before and after tibial nerve block of the tibial nerve. Static single limb stability, stance limb ground reaction forces, electromyogram and temporal data were measured. It was hypothesized that postural stability would decrease post-block and that this would affect the kinetic and temporal properties of GI. Subjects had significantly decreased postural stability post-block and changes in normal gait kinetics, however, no changes were noted in ground reaction forces or relative temporal data of the GI task. The finding that GI was unaffected by diminished single leg postural instability suggests that GI is a pre-programmed task.

Author Keywords: Motor programming; Posture; Electromyogram; Force plate

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