Journal
GAIT & POSTURE
Volume 36, Issue 1, Pages 49-55Publisher
ELSEVIER IRELAND LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.gaitpost.2012.01.004
Keywords
Motor control; Walking; Arm swing; Coordination; Spinal cord injury
Categories
Funding
- Department of Veterans Affairs Office of RR&D Service and RRD Center
- Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation
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Arm and leg coordination naturally emerges during walking, but can be affected by stroke or Parkinson's disease. The purpose of this preliminary study was to characterize arm and leg coordination during treadmill walking at self-selected comfortable walking speeds (CWSs) in individuals using arm swing with motor incomplete spinal cord injury (iSCI). Hip and shoulder angle cycle durations and amplitudes, strength of peak correlations between contralateral hip and shoulder joint angle time series, the time shifts at which these peak correlations occur, and associated variability were quantified. Outcomes in individuals with iSCI selecting fast CWSs (range. 1.0-1.3 m/s) and speed-matched individuals without neurological injuries are similar. Differences, however, are detected in individuals with iSCI selecting slow CWSs (range, 0.25-0.65 m/s) and may represent compensatory strategies to improve walking balance or forward propulsion. These individuals elicit a 1:1, arm:leg frequency ratio versus the 2:1 ratio observed in non-injured individuals. Shoulder and hip movement patterns, however, are highly reproducible (coordinated) in participants with iSCI, regardless of CWS. This high degree of inter-extremity coordination could reflect an inability to modify a single movement pattern post-iSCI. Combined, these data suggest inter-extremity walking coordination May be altered, but is present after iSCI, and therefore may be regulated, in part, by neural control. Published by Elsevier EN.
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