Citation

Roden-Reynolds DC, Walker MH, Wasserman CR, Dean JC. J. Neurophysiol. 2015; 114(4): 2220-2229.

Affiliation

Medical University of South Carolina deaje@musc.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, American Physiological Society)

DOI

10.1152/jn.00551.2015

PMID

26289467

Abstract

Active control of the mediolateral location of the feet is an important component of a stable bipedal walking pattern, although the roles of sensory feedback in this process are unclear. In the present experiments, we tested whether hip abductor proprioception influenced the control of mediolateral gait motion. Participants performed a series of quiet standing and treadmill walking trials. In some trials, 80 Hz vibration was applied intermittently over the right gluteus medius (GM) to evoke artificial proprioceptive feedback. During walking, the GM was vibrated either during right leg stance (to elicit a perception that the pelvis was closer mediolaterally to the stance foot) or swing (to elicit a perception that the swing leg was more adducted). Vibration during quiet standing evoked leftward sway in most participants (13/16), as expected from its predicted perceptual effects. Across the 13 participants sensitive to vibration, stance phase vibration caused the contralateral leg to be placed significantly closer to the midline (by ~2 mm) at the end of the ongoing step. In contrast, swing phase vibration caused the vibrated leg to be placed significantly farther mediolaterally from the midline (by ~2mm), while the pelvis was held closer to the stance foot (by ~1 mm). The estimated mediolateral margin of stability was thus decreased by stance phase vibration, but increased by swing phase vibration. While the observed effects of vibration were small, they are consistent with humans monitoring hip proprioceptive feedback while walking in order to maintain stable mediolateral gait motion.

Language: en