Citation

Tirosh O, Sparrow WA. Gait Posture 2004; 19(3): 243-251.

Affiliation

School of Health Sciences, Deakin University, 221 Burwood Hwy., Burwood 3125, Melbourne, Australia.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/S0966-6362(03)00063-8

PMID

15125913

Abstract

Sixteen young (25 +/- 2.6 years) and 16 older individuals (69 +/- 4.4 years) walked normally then terminated walking rapidly. A visual stopping stimulus was presented 10 ms following ground contact (short delay) and in another condition, at 450 ms prior to toe-off (long delay). Stimulus probability was either high (80% of trials) or low (10%). The younger group stopped faster (463 vs. 574 ms) despite also walking faster (1.29 vs. 1.17 m s(-1)). Longer delay decreased one-step responses but older participants used significantly more (slower) two-step stopping, which increased stopping time and distance. The additional step may have been pre-planned to maintain medial-lateral stability.

Language: en