TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2017//
TI  - Is child walking conditioned by gender? Surface EMG patterns in female and male children
JO  - Gait and posture
A1  - Di Nardo, Francesco
A1  - Laureati, Giulio
A1  - Strazza, Annachiara
A1  - Mengarelli, Alessandro
A1  - Burattini, Laura
A1  - Agostini, Valentina
A1  - Nascimbeni, Alberto
A1  - Knaflitz, Marco
A1  - Fioretti, Sandro
SP  - 254
EP  - 259
VL  - 53
IS  - 
N2  - EMG-based differences between females and males during walking are generally acknowledged in adults. Aim of the study was the quantification of possible gender differences in myoelectric activity of gastrocnemius lateralis (GL) and tibialis anterior (TA) during walking in school-age children. Gender-related comparison with adults was also provided to get possible novel insight in maturation of gait. To this aim, Statistical gait analysis, a recent methodology performing a statistical characterization of gait by averaging spatial-temporal and surface-EMG-based parameters over hundreds of strides, was performed in100 healthy school-age children (C-group) and in 33 healthy young adults (YA-group). On average, 301±110 consecutive strides were analyzed for each subject. In C-group, no significant differences (p>0.05) were observed between females and males in GL and TA, considering mean onset/offset instants of activation and occurrence frequency. Stratifying the C-group for age, small differences between females and males in occurrence frequency of GL arose in oldest children. In YA-group, females showed a significant propensity for a more complex recruitment of TA and GL (higher number of activations during gait cycle, quantified by occurrence frequency) compared to males. These outcomes suggest that gender-related differences in sEMG parameters do not characterize the recruitment of GL and TA during child walking in early years (6-8 years), start occurring when adolescence is approaching (10-12 years), and are acknowledged in both ankle muscles only in adults. Present findings seem to support previous studies on maturation of gait which indicate adolescence as the time-range where gait is completing its maturation path.<br><br>Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0966-6362
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gaitpost.2017.02.009
ID  - ref1
ER  -