Do Walking Muscle Synergies Influence Propensity of Severe Slipping?

Abstract

Slipping is frequently responsible for falling injuries. Preventing slips, and more importantly severe slips, is of importance in fall prevention. Our previous study characterized mild slipping and severe slipping by the analysis of muscle synergies. Significant discrepancies in motor control of slipping have been observed between mild and severe slippers. We are further interested in whether differences exist in baseline motor control patterns between persons who experience mild and severe slips when exposed to a slippery contaminant. This study investigated walking with a muscle synergy approach to detect if walking muscle synergies differ between groups experiencing different slip severities. Twenty healthy young adults (eight mild slippers and 12 severe slippers) participated in this study and their muscle synergies of walking were extracted. Muscle synergy analysis showed that mild slippers had a higher contribution of hamstring and quadriceps during walking while severe slippers had increased contribution of the tibialis group. This study provides novel information that may contribute to identifying diagnostic techniques for identifying persons or populations with a high risk of fall based on their walking patterns.

Identifying differences in gait adaptability across various speeds using movement synergy analysis

“…Less severe slippers demonstrated higher activation of the medial-hamstring at heel-strike and of the vastus-lateralis following heel-strike allowing for more efficient weight transfer than their less stable counterparts. The findings of the current study mirror this in that the foot placement mechanism was related to DP during a trial of perturbed-walking [ 50 ]. focused solely on post-slip synergies and so understandably, the proactive role of the push-off mechanism for gait adaptations was not elicited.…”

“…step length and width) [ 5 , 46 ]. Participants in the current study exhibiting a greater control during push-off prior to the slip-event were perhaps more capable of recovering posture by avoiding an excessive foot-floor angle post-slip, a gait parameter associated with slip severity [ 49 , 50 ]. found significant associations between slip severity and baseline muscle synergy patterns among healthy adults.…”

Severity of Unconstrained Simultaneous Bilateral Slips: The Impact of Frontal Plane Feet Velocities Relative to the Center of Mass to Classify Slip-Related Falls and Recoveries

“…Walking on a slippery surface changes our gait kinetics, kinematics, and muscle activation patterns (29). Moreover, it was previously demonstrated that walking on a slippery surface affects both biomechanics through changes in reactive gait during the initial step on a slippery surface (38)(39)(40)(41), as well as motor control through changes in proactive behavior after extended exposure to the slippery surface (29,32). Here, we focused our analysis on the initial slip exposure for each slip onset phase, however we acknowledge that there are likely learning effects after the initial slip regardless of the difference in onset phase.…”

Identifying differences in gait adaptability across various speeds using movement synergy analysis

“…The findings of the current study mirror this in that the foot placement mechanism was related to DP during a trial of perturbed-walking. Nazifi et al (2019) focused solely on post-slip synergies and so understandably, the proactive role of the push-off mechanism for gait adaptations was not elicited. Robert et al (2009) noted the closed-loop control of gait during the double-support phase and how the CNS appears to use this phase to correct whole-body angular momentum while swing-phase plays a reactive, stabilising role in terms of stride-to-stride reproducibility.…”