Energy optimization is a major objective in the real-time control of step width in human walking |
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| Institution: | 1. School of Engineering Science, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada;2. School of Kinesiology and Health Studies, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada;3. Department of Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada;1. Department of Integrative Physiology, University of Colorado Boulder, 354 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309, United States;2. Eastern Colorado Healthcare System, Department of Veterans Affairs, Denver, CO, United States;1. Department of Movement and Sport Sciences, Ghent University, Watersportlaan 2, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium;2. Department of Physical Therapy and Motor Rehabilitation, De Pintelaan 185, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium;3. Department of Biomechanics, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha, NE, 68182, United States;1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States;2. Center for Gait & Motional Analysis, Gillette Children’s Specialty Healthcare, St. Paul, MN, United States;1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, G.G. Brown Laboratory, 2350 Hayward Ann., Arbor, MI 48109, USA;2. Faculty of Kinesiology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada;1. School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA;2. Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University, Chapel Hill, NC, USA;1. School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, McGill University, Montreal, Canada;2. Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Rehabilitation of Greater Montreal, Lethbridge-Layton-Mackay Rehabilitation Centre, Montreal, Québec, Canada;3. School of Kinesiology and Physical Activity Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Montreal, Canada;4. Research Center of the Sainte-Justine University Hospital (CRCHUSJ), Canada |
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| Abstract: | People prefer to move in energetically optimal ways during walking. We recently found that this preference arises not just through evolution and development, but that the nervous system will continuously optimize step frequency in response to new energetic cost landscapes. Here we tested whether energy optimization is also a major objective in the nervous system’s real-time control of step width using a device that can reshape the relationship between step width and energetic cost, shifting people’s energy optimal step width. We accomplished this by changing the walking incline to apply an energetic penalty as a function of step width. We found that people didn’t spontaneously initiate energy optimization, but instead required experience with a lower energetic cost step width. After initiating optimization, people adapted, on average, 3.5 standard deviations of their natural step width variability towards the new energy optimal width. Within hundreds of steps, they updated this as their new preferred width and rapidly returned to it when perturbed away. This new preferred width reduced energetic cost by roughly 14%, however, it was slightly narrower than the energetically optimal width, possibly due to non-energy objectives that may contribute to the nervous system’s control of step width. Collectively, these findings suggest that the nervous systems of able-bodied people can continuously optimize energetic cost to determine preferred step width. |
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| Keywords: | Gait Metabolic energetic cost Biomechanics Motor control Neuromechanics |
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