Marmelat Vivien, Delignières Didier, Torre Kjerstin, Beek Peter J, Daffertshofer Andreas
Movement to Health Laboratory, Montpellier-1 University, EuroMov, Montpellier, France; MOVE Research Institute Amsterdam, Faculty of Human Movement Sciences, VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Movement to Health Laboratory, Montpellier-1 University, EuroMov, Montpellier, France.
Neurosci Lett. 2014 Apr 3;564:67-71. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2014.02.010. Epub 2014 Feb 16.
Isochronous cueing is widely used in gait rehabilitation even though it alters the stride-time dynamics toward anti-persistent rather than the persistent, fractal fluctuations characteristic of human walking. In the present experiment we tested an alternative cueing method: pacing by a human. To this end, we formed sixteen pairs of walkers based on their preferred stride frequency. Each pair consisted of a designated "leader" and a "follower" who was instructed to synchronize his or her steps to those of the leader. Heel strike times were detected with tiny footswitches, and Detrended Fluctuation Analysis (DFA) was applied to estimate fractal exponents of stride-time series. To ensure that the stride-time dynamics of the follower matched those of the leader, the latter was structurally modified by artificial cueing via either an isochronous metronome or a fractal metronome, in contrast to self-paced walking. Mean relative phases between followers and leaders were close to 0°, confirming that followers effectively synchronized their footfalls with those of the leaders. Mean fractal exponents were not statistically different between followers and leaders in any condition and highly correlated, suggesting that followers matched their stride-time structure to that of leaders. Our results open perspectives for alternative, more natural cueing protocols for gait rehabilitation.
等时提示在步态康复中被广泛应用，尽管它会使步幅时间动态向反持续性而非人类行走特有的持续性分形波动转变。在本实验中，我们测试了一种替代提示方法：由人进行定步速。为此，我们根据他们偏好的步频组成了16对步行者。每对由一名指定的“领导者”和一名“跟随者”组成，跟随者被指示使其步伐与领导者的步伐同步。用微型脚踏开关检测脚跟撞击时间，并应用去趋势波动分析（DFA）来估计步幅时间序列的分形指数。为确保跟随者的步幅时间动态与领导者的相匹配，与自主定步速行走相比，通过等时节拍器或分形节拍器进行人工提示对领导者的步幅时间动态进行了结构调整。跟随者与领导者之间的平均相对相位接近0°，证实跟随者有效地使其脚步与领导者的脚步同步。在任何条件下，跟随者和领导者之间的平均分形指数在统计学上没有差异且高度相关，这表明跟随者使其步幅时间结构与领导者的相匹配。我们的结果为步态康复的替代、更自然的提示方案开辟了前景。
