Understanding stability of walking – active control towards a passively stable pattern?
Description: How do humans walk without falling? Stable gait requires control of the body’s center of mass in relation to its base of support. The goal is of course to limit, or recover, from small perturbations that occur during every step. Passive walkers may have some stability, but in real-life conditions active muscle control is paramount. Different muscles con-trolled by different parts of the central nervous system work to adapt the position of the base of support or to de-/accelerate the body center of mass. Building on my research on kinematic measures and neural correlates of gait stability, I here hypothesize that sever-al distinct phases of the gait cycle require active control. To test this I propose to
1. validate and progress phase-dependent mathematical measures of gait stability, and use these to establish phase-dependency of gait control.
2. identify movement strategies and their neural implementation used for gait stability via kinematic, electromyographic, and electro-encephalographic recordings;
3. detail cortical contributions in control of gait stability using transcranial magnetic stimulation.
With this project I will be the first to study strategies, muscles, and cortical areas involved in control of gait stability in an integrated manner. I consider this integrated approach mandatory for unravelling the mechanisms underpinning control of stability in human walking.
Funding type: fellowship
Funder scheme: NWO-Talentprogramma Vidi 2016 GO WOTRO
Start date: 2017-10-01
End date: 2022-09-30
Investigator: Sjoerd Bruijn
Institution: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Funded outputs count: 71
Funder award ID: 016.Vidi.178.014
OpenAlex ID: G33166919