Walking with different types of cueing/stimulus (i.e. auditory, visual) has shown to alter gait variability, thus emerging as an innovative therapeutical tool to restore abnormal gait variability in clinical populations. However, the majority of the research in this area has focused on auditory stimulus, while visual stimulus is an understudied alternative that needs more attention, particularly due to the natural dependence on vision during walking. Furthermore, the time differences between the occurrences of the walking steps and the sensory cues, also known as asynchronies, have also received minimal attention even though how well will synchronize with different stimuli is of great importance. This study investigated how synchronizing to visual stimulus that is presented with different temporal structures could affect gait variability and their respected asynchronies. Participants performed four 15-minute walking trials around an indoor track while wearing insole footswitches for the following conditions: a) self-paced walking, and b) walking with glasses that instructed the subjects to step in sync with a virtual moving bar. The stepping occurences of the moving bar were presented in three different ways b1) non-variable, b2) variable and b3) random. Stride times and asynchronies were determined, and the mean values along with the fractal scaling (an indicator of the complexity) in their time series, were calculated. The fractal scaling of the stride times was unaltered when participants walked with the variable stimulus as compared to the self-paced walking condition; while significantly decreased during the non-variable and random conditions indicating a loss of complexity for these two conditions. Regarding the asynchronies, no differences were observed in the means or the fractal scaling of the asynchronies. The correlation analysis between stride times and asynchronies revealed a strong relationship for the non-variable condition but a weak one for both variable and random conditions. Taken together, the present study results supports the idea of an existing internal timekeeper that exhibits complexity. We have shown that this complex pattern is similar regardless of the stimulus condition, suggesting that the system's complexity is likely to be expressed at the task performance level-asyncrhonies-when walking to a stimulus. Thus, future research in Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.

Cardiovascular assessment and fitness training are often overlooked in physical rehabilitation. Many current rehabilitation exercise devices do not allow for the recording and exportation of variables related to cardiovascular fitness. Therefore, the purpose of this work was to design, prototype, and validate a data logger that measures, records, and exports time, heart rate (HR), and speed data with the commercially available rehabilitation device called the Intelligently Controlled Assistive Rehabilitation Elliptical (ICARE). Validation involved using the data logger device in parallel with devices currently used in research environments for measuring HR (TrueOne 2400 metabolic cart with polar HR monitoring chest strap) and speed (ICARE's console). Ten healthy individuals without known disability impacting walking or ability to use the ICARE, exercised on the ICARE while HR and ICARE speed were measured. It was found that the data logger can be used to accurately measure, record, and export HR (linear regression: P < 0.001; R2 = 0.892) and speed (linear regression: P < 0.001; R2 = 0.997) data when used with the ICARE.

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