Anticipatory kinematics and muscle activity preceding transitions from level-ground walking to stair ascent and descent

Peng, Joshua; Fey, Nicholas P.; Kuiken, Todd A.; Hargrove, Levi J.

Affiliations

¹Center for Bionic Medicine, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60611, USA

²Department of Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL 60611, USA

³Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL 60611, USA

Abstract

The majority of fall-related accidents are during stair ambulation—occurring commonly at the top and bottom stairs of each flight, locations in which individuals are transitioning to stairs. Little is known about how individuals adjust their biomechanics in anticipation of walking-stair transitions.

We identified the anticipatory stride mechanics of nine able-bodied individuals as they approached transitions from level ground walking to stair ascent and descent. Unlike prior investigations of stair ambulation, we analyzed two consecutive “anticipation” strides preceding the transitions strides to stairs, and tested a comprehensive set of kinematic and electromyographic (EMG) data from both the leading and trailing legs. Subjects completed ten trials of baseline overground walking and ten trials of walking to stair ascent and descent. Deviations relative to baseline were assessed.

Significant changes in mechanics and EMG occurred in the earliest anticipation strides analyzed for both ascent and descent transitions. For stair descent, these changes were consistent with observed reductions in walking speed, which occurred in all anticipation strides tested. For stair ascent, subjects maintained their speed until the swing phase of the latest anticipation stride, and changes were found that would normally be observed for decreasing speed.

Given the timing and nature of the observed changes, this study has implications for enhancing intent recognition systems and evaluating fall-prone or disabled individuals, by testing their abilities to sense upcoming transitions and decelerate during locomotion.

Links

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbiomech.2015.12.041

PubMed: 26830440

WoS: 000372564600004

History

Accepted: 2015-12-24

Cited Works (3)

Year	Entry
2008	Neptune RR, Sasaki K, Kautz SA. The effect of walking speed on muscle function and mechanical energetics. Gait Post. July 2008;28(1):135-143.
2001	Neptune RR, Kautz SA, Zajac FE. Contributions of the individual ankle plantar flexors to support, forward progression and swing initiation during walking. J Biomech. November 2001;34(11):1387-1398.
2008	Silverman AK, Fey NP, Portillo A, Walden JG, Bosker G, Neptune RR. Compensatory mechanisms in below-knee amputee gait in response to increasing steady-state walking speeds. Gait Post. November 2008;28(4):602-609.

Cited By (3)

Year	Entry
2020	Kazemimoghadam M. Continuous Classification of Locomotion in Response to Task Complexity and Parkinson's Disease [PhD thesis]. University of Texas at Dallas; May 2020.
2022	Li W. Empirical and Musculoskeletal Modeling Approaches to Assess and Reshape Angular Momenta During Human Locomotion [PhD thesis]. University of Texas at Austin; August 2022.
2022	Rabe KG. Enabling Intuitive Control of Lower-Limb Assistive Devices and Their Assessment Through Transverse Sonomyographic Sensing and Machine Learning [PhD thesis]. University of Texas at Austin; May 2022.