Likens Aaron D, Mastorakis Spyridon, Skiadopoulos Andreas, Kent Jenny A, Al Azad Md Washik, Stergiou Nick
Department of Biomechanics, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha, USA.
Computer Science Department, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha, USA.
IEEE Consum Commun Netw Conf. 2021 Jan;2021. doi: 10.1109/ccnc49032.2021.9369490. Epub 2021 Mar 11.
Older adults and people suffering from neurodegenerative disease often experience difficulty controlling gait during locomotion, ultimately increasing their risk of falling. To combat these effects, researchers and clinicians have used metronomes as assistive devices to improve movement timing in hopes of reducing their risk of falling. Historically, researchers in this area have relied on metronomes with isochronous interbeat intervals, which may be problematic because normal healthy gait varies considerably from one step to the next. More recently, researchers have advocated the use of irregular metronomes embedded with statistical properties found in healthy populations. In this paper, we explore the effect of both regular and irregular metronomes on many statistical properties of interstride intervals. Furthermore, we investigate how these properties react to mechanical perturbation in the form of a halted treadmill belt while walking. Our results demonstrate that metronomes that are either isochronous or random break down the inherent structure of healthy gait. Metronomes with statistical properties similar to healthy gait seem to preserve those properties, despite a strong mechanical perturbation. We discuss the future development of this work in the context of networked augmented reality metronome devices.
老年人和患有神经退行性疾病的人在行走过程中往往难以控制步态，最终增加了他们跌倒的风险。为了对抗这些影响，研究人员和临床医生使用节拍器作为辅助设备来改善运动时机，以期降低他们跌倒的风险。从历史上看，该领域的研究人员一直依赖节拍间隔等时的节拍器，这可能存在问题，因为正常健康的步态在一步与下一步之间差异很大。最近，研究人员主张使用嵌入健康人群统计特性的不规则节拍器。在本文中，我们探讨了规则和不规则节拍器对步幅间隔的许多统计特性的影响。此外，我们研究了这些特性在行走时面对跑步机皮带停止这种机械扰动时的反应。我们的结果表明，等时或随机的节拍器会破坏健康步态的固有结构。具有与健康步态相似统计特性的节拍器似乎能保留这些特性，尽管存在强烈的机械扰动。我们在联网增强现实节拍器设备的背景下讨论这项工作的未来发展。
