Citation

Abram SJ, Selinger JC, Donelan JM. J. Biomech. 2019; 91: 85-91.

Affiliation

Department of Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. Electronic address: mdonelan@sfu.ca.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jbiomech.2019.05.010

PMID

31151794

Abstract

People prefer to move in energetically optimal ways during walking. We recently found that this preference arises not just through evolution and development, but that the nervous system will continuously optimize step frequency in response to new energetic cost landscapes. Here we tested whether energy optimization is also a major objective in the nervous system's real-time control of step width using a device that can reshape the relationship between step width and energetic cost, shifting people's energy optimal step width. We accomplished this by changing the walking incline to apply an energetic penalty as a function of step width. We found that people didn't spontaneously initiate energy optimization, but instead required experience with a lower energetic cost step width. After initiating optimization, people adapted, on average, 3.5 standard deviations of their natural step width variability towards the new energy optimal width. Within hundreds of steps, they updated this as their new preferred width and rapidly returned to it when perturbed away. This new preferred width reduced energetic cost by roughly 14%, however, it was slightly narrower than the energetically optimal width, possibly due to non-energy objectives that may contribute to the nervous system's control of step width. Collectively, these findings suggest that the nervous systems of able-bodied people can continuously optimize energetic cost to determine preferred step width.

Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Biomechanics; Gait; Metabolic energetic cost; Motor control; Neuromechanics