This study was designed to determine the effect of backpack loading on the gait pattern and corresponding compensatory strategy, which is important to the balance control of biped robot and military training. Five healthy subjects were instructed to walk at their preferred speed on level pathway taking three different loads i.e. 6 kg, 12 kg and 25 kg, on their backs. The results showed that the gait pattern was apparently influenced, and the dominant effects were found to be the flexion of hip, knee joints and pitch angle of torso. The stride speed decreased apparently with loading on their backs, but the stride length showed less changes. Besides, the responses to taking loads might be influenced by the strength of body. An apparent multi-joints coordination motor mode was employed to compensate the influences of loading, however, their contributions are different; hip, knee joints and torso pitch made dominant contributions to the compensation while ankle joints made minor. The anterior pitch of upper torso could be employed to adjust the overall center of mass while loading on their backs, the larger the magnitude of loading on their backs, the larger the anterior pitch angle of torso. After the heel touched the ground, the flexion of hip and knee joints were effective for the shock absorption, which means that the stiffness of hip and knee joints can be used to absorb the shock and avoid the trauma of each joints.
Adult ; Ankle Joint ; physiology ; Back ; physiology ; Gait ; physiology ; Hip Joint ; physiology ; Humans ; Knee Joint ; physiology ; Male ; Weight-Bearing ; physiology

The first metatarsophalangeal joint bending plays an important role in the foot movement. However, the existing researches mainly focused on the movement scope of the joint and the clinical treatments of related foot diseases. In order to investigate the effects of the first metatarsophalangeal joint bending on human walking gait stability, the present researchers recruited 6 healthy young men to perform the first metatarsophalangeal joint constraint (FMJC) and barefoot (BF) walking tests. Data of the temporal and spatial parameters, the joint angles of lower limbs, the ground reaction forces (GRF) and utilized coefficients of friction (UCOF) were collected and analyzed. The results showed that, since hip and knee could produce compensation motions, the FMJC had no significant effects on waking gait, but the slip and fall probability increased significantly.
Friction ; Gait ; Humans ; Male ; Metatarsophalangeal Joint ; physiology ; Walking

Evaluation of human gait function is of great significance in clinical medicine and rehabilitation engineering. A quantitative gait evaluation method using principal component analysis was proposed. The evaluation steps included that a series of characteristic index was performed by the gait parameters with a gait detection, and the index was normalized, quantified and summarized by principal component analysis. Then the evaluation results were shown in formulation, figures and tables. The examples showed that this system could evaluate the recovery of the gait by treatment.
Evaluation Studies as Topic ; Gait ; physiology ; Humans ; Principal Component Analysis

The present paper is to study the center line of the plantar pressure of normal young people, and to find the relation between center line of the plantar pressure and gait stability and balance. The paper gives the testing principle and calculating methods for geometric center of plantar pressure distribution and the center of pressure due to the techniques of footprint frame. The calculating formulas in both x direction and y direction are also deduced in the paper. In the experiments carried out in our laboratory, the gait parameters of 131 young subjects walking as usual speed were acquired, and 14 young subjects of the total were specially analyzed. We then provided reference data for the walking gait database of young people, including time parameters, space parameters and plantar pressure parameters. We also obtained the line of geometry center and pressure center under the foot. We found that the differences existed in normal people's geometric center line and the pressure center line. The center of pressure trajectory revealed foot movement stability. The length and lateral changes of the center line of the plantar pressure could be applied to analysis of the plantar pressure of all kinds of people. The results in this paper are useful in clinical foot disease diagnosis and evaluation of surgical effect.
Foot ; physiology ; Gait ; Humans ; Pressure ; Reference Values ; Walking

The purpose of this paper was to investigate the effects of wearable lower limb exoskeletons on the kinematics and kinetic parameters of the lower extremity joints and muscles during normal walking, aiming to provide scientific basis for optimizing its structural design and improving its system performance. We collected the walking data of subjects without lower limb exoskeleton and selected the joint angles in sagittal plane of human lower limbs as driving data for lower limb exoskeleton simulation analysis. Anybody (the human biomechanical analysis software) was used to establish the human body model (the human body model without lower limb exoskeleton) and the man-machine system model (the lower limb exoskeleton model). The kinematics parameters (joint force and joint moment) and muscle parameters (muscle strength, muscle activation, muscle contraction velocity and muscle length) under two situations were compared. The experimental result shows that walking gait after wearing the lower limb exoskeleton meets the normal gait, but there would be an occasional and sudden increase in muscle strength. The max activation level of main lower limb muscles were all not exceeding 1, in another word the muscles did not appear fatigue and injury. The highest increase activation level occurred in rectus femoris (0.456), and the lowest increase activation level occurred in semitendinosus (0.013), which means the lower limb exoskeletons could lead to the fatigue and injury of semitendinosus. The results of this study illustrate that to avoid the phenomenon of sudden increase of individual muscle force, the consistency between the length of body segment and the length of exoskeleton rod should be considered in the design of lower limb exoskeleton extremity.
Biomechanical Phenomena ; Exoskeleton Device ; Gait ; Humans ; Lower Extremity ; physiology

Neurocognitive impairment is a group of clinical syndromes characterized by impaired cognitive function and decreased motor ability. Non-pharmacological interventions such as physical exercise have advantages in the treatment of patients with neurocognitive impairment. Multicomponent exercise is a combination of various physical exercises, including strength training, endurance training, balance training and flexibility training, that can improve gait, balance and cardiopulmonary function by increasing muscle mass, strength and endurance in people with neurocognitive impairment, while also reducing the risk of falls in elders. This article reviews the benefits of multicomponent exercise for patients with neurocognitive impairment and its evaluation methods; also describes 4 intervention programs and their clinical application, to provide evidence for clinical practice and promote the application of multicomponent exercise in patients with neurocognitive impairment.
Accidental Falls ; Aged ; Cognition ; Exercise/physiology* ; Gait ; Humans ; Resistance Training

An in-depth understanding of the mechanism of lower extremity muscle coordination during walking is the key to improving the efficacy of gait rehabilitation in patients with neuromuscular dysfunction. This paper investigates the effect of changes in walking speed on lower extremity muscle synergy patterns and muscle functional networks. Eight healthy subjects were recruited to perform walking tasks on a treadmill at three different speeds, and the surface electromyographic signals (sEMG) of eight muscles of the right lower limb were collected synchronously. The non-negative matrix factorization (NNMF) method was used to extract muscle synergy patterns, the mutual information (MI) method was used to construct the alpha frequency band (8-13 Hz), beta frequency band (14-30 Hz) and gamma frequency band (31-60 Hz) muscle functional network, and complex network analysis methods were introduced to quantify the differences between different networks. Muscle synergy analysis extracted 5 muscle synergy patterns, and changes in walking speed did not change the number of muscle synergy, but resulted in changes in muscle weights. Muscle network analysis found that at the same speed, high-frequency bands have lower global efficiency and clustering coefficients. As walking speed increased, the strength of connections between local muscles also increased. The results show that there are different muscle synergy patterns and muscle function networks in different walking speeds. This study provides a new perspective for exploring the mechanism of muscle coordination at different walking speeds, and is expected to provide theoretical support for the evaluation of gait function in patients with neuromuscular dysfunction.
Humans ; Walking Speed ; Muscle, Skeletal/physiology* ; Electromyography ; Gait/physiology* ; Walking/physiology*

A dynamics model of human lower extremity, which combines musculotendon dynamics and muscle excitation-contraction dynamics, is presented. With this model, a motion process of normal gait during swing phase is numerically analyzed by use of the optimal control theory. The model was verified using experimental kinematics, muscles activation, and electromyographic data. The result showed that the tri-phasic activation pattern and synergistic muscles displayed during a normal gait in swing phase. The pattern consists of three distinct phases, i. e., acceleration during moving initiation, braking the moving segment, and posture control at the final specified position.
Biomechanical Phenomena ; Computer Simulation ; Electromyography ; Gait ; physiology ; Humans ; Kinetics ; Lower Extremity ; physiology ; Models, Biological ; Muscle, Skeletal ; physiology ; Tendons ; physiology

This paper presents a system of foot pressure measuring system based on LabVIEW. The designs of hardware and software system are figured out. LabVIEW is used to design the application interface for displaying plantar pressure. The system can realize the plantar pressure data acquisition, data storage, waveform display, and waveform playback. It was also shown that the testing results of the system were in line with the changing trend of normal gait, which conformed to human system engineering theory. It leads to the demonstration of system reliability. The system gives vivid and visual results, and provides a new method of how to measure foot-pressure and some references for the design of Insole System.
Biomechanical Phenomena ; Foot ; physiology ; Gait ; physiology ; Humans ; Monitoring, Physiologic ; instrumentation ; methods ; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted ; Software

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the effect of torso training on unstable surface on lower limb motor function in patients with incomplete spinal cord injury. METHODS: A total of 80 patients with incomplete spinal cord injury caused by thoracolumbar fracture admitted in Ningbo Yinzhou No.2 Hospital from April 2020 to December 2021 were randomly divided into control group and study group, with 40 cases in each group. In addition to routine training, the control group received torso training on stable surface and the study group received torso training on unstable surface. The gait, lower limb muscle strength, balance function, lower limb function, mobility and nerve function of the two groups were compared. RESULTS: After treatment, the stride length, stride frequency and comfortable walking speed improved in the two groups (all P<0.05), and the improvements in study group were more significant (all P<0.05). The muscle strength of quadriceps femoris, gluteus maximus, hamstring, anterior tibialis and gastrocnemius were improved in the two groups (all P<0.05), and the improvements in study group were more significant (all P<0.05); the total trajectories of static eye opening and static eye closing gravity center movement in the two groups were significantly shorter (all P<0.05), and the improvements in the study group were more significant (all P<0.05). The dynamic stability limit range and the American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) lower extremity motor score, Berg balance scale, modified Barthel index scale in the two groups were significantly higher (all P<0.05), and these scores in study group were significantly higher than those in the control group (all P<0.05). Both groups showed a significant improvement in ASIA grade (all P<0.05), and the improvement in the study group was significantly better (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS Torso training on unstable surface can effectively improve the gait and lower limb muscle strength of patients with incomplete spinal cord injury and improve the lower limb motor function.
Humans ; Walking/physiology* ; Spinal Cord Injuries ; Gait/physiology* ; Lower Extremity ; Torso