Tactile stimuli affect long-range correlations of stride interval and stride length differently during walking

Abstract

Sensory feedback below the sole of the foot using sub-threshold mechanical noise significantly reduced postural sway in patients with diabetes and stroke. However, the effects of tactile parameters on walking are still elusive. Specifically, the effects of such parameters on human gait variability need to be studied because of possible rehabilitation outcomes in terms of bringing improvement in temporal and spatial gait parameters. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether different frequency and amplitude combinations of vibro-tactile stimulation of feet would affect stride-to-stride variability in healthy young adults. Ten healthy subjects walked on a treadmill at self-selected pace while wearing customized insoles fitted with tactors that vibrated at selected frequencies and amplitudes. The results show that the frequency manipulations of tactile stimulation altered the long-range correlations (LRCs) in stride length while amplitude manipulations affected the LRCs in stride interval without having any effect on the amount of gait variability. Our findings suggest that independent neural mechanisms may be responsible for coordinating LRCs of gait parameters in the spatial and temporal domains.

Gait Complexity and Regularity Are Differently Modulated by Treadmill Walking in Parkinson's Disease and Healthy Population

“…Sensory inputs from TW could provide the necessary trigger to maintain some gait rhythmicity in the same way as external cues. From various nature (auditory, visual or proprioceptive and tactile), their usefulness in the struggle against the impaired gait automaticity was demonstrated in PD by bypassing the defective pallidocortical circuit (van Wegen et al, 2006 ; Chien et al, 2017 ; Dotov et al, 2017 ). In this way, TW could act as an external pacemaker and the fixed timing of leg movements could reduce the regulatory load on defective cortical areas allowing relative adaptations of gait parameters (Frenkel-Toledo et al, 2005 ; Snijders et al, 2011 ).…”

“…With respect to the treadmill walking session, each patient was instructed to walk on the treadmill at a comfortable walking speed without holding the handrails. The treadmill speed was adjusted to match each participant's comfortable speed (Bayat et al, 2005 ; Chien et al, 2017 ). This comfortable speed was determined following procedures used by Bayat et al with patients suffering from stroke and Chien et al with elderly individuals (Bayat et al, 2005 ).…”

“…Interestingly, the use of assistive devices can modulate the temporal organization of gait variability in PD (Warlop et al, 2017 ). Beneficial effects of external sensory inputs from various natures (auditory, visual, tactile,…) were demonstrated to compensate or restore interactions among multiple components involved in healthy gait pattern (Hunt et al, 2014 ; Marmelat et al, 2014a , b ; Chien et al, 2017 ). By providing the necessary trigger, external sensory cues allow to bypass the defective pallidocortical circuit in PD (van Wegen et al, 2006 ; Baker et al, 2007 ; Nieuwboer et al, 2007 ).…”

Comparison of gait variability and symmetry in trained individuals with transtibial and transfemoral limb loss

“…20 Once the patient reached his/her own comfortable speed, a familiarization period of 4–5 min was utilized. 21,22 After the familiarization period, gait characteristics were evaluated. More than 200 consecutive steps were collected for each participant.…”

The Promise of Stochastic Resonance in Falls Prevention

“…This shows that not every individual will gain an advantage of subthreshold vibrotactle noise stimulation. The frequency and the amplitude of plantar vibrotactile stimulation is relevant, as these affect long-range correlations in stride length and stride interval during walking in healthy young adults (Chien et al, 2017).…”