Passive Stride-length Limiting Orthosis Causes Gait Asymmetry and Sensorimotor Adaptation in Humans.

Jason Plants*, Emily Herrick, and Sergiy Yakovenko.
Department of Human Performance, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506

Presentation No.: 85

Assigned Category (Presentation Format): Health Sciences (Poster Presentations)

Student’s Major: Exercise Physiology

Different central and peripheral pathologies result in asymmetric walking that could further lead to musculoskeletal sequelae. To prevent further injury, we need to develop an effective intervention that promotes symmetric walking. We hypothesized that the constraining of stride length can induce motor adaptations. Furthermore, the rate of recovery from asymmetric gait to symmetric (baseline) gait could be manipulated by the use of adaptation with the opposing effect. Healthy adults (N=3, 22.3 ± 0.6 years) walked on a treadmill alternating between baseline symmetric walking and asymmetric walking imposed with a light exoskeletal constraint. An asymmetry index was created, and the participants walked in sequence of left leg preference, right leg preference, then unconstrained. When their gait patterns were placed on the asymmetry index, their gait was 44.4% more symmetric in the unconstrained condition than if they had walked in a sequence of left leg preference then unconstrained. This preliminary result supports both of our hypotheses and our idea that this novel intervention can be used in clinical populations with gait asymmetry.

Funding:

Program/mechanism supporting research/creative efforts: WVU's SURE program (Rita Rio & Michelle Richards-Babb)