Sado Takashi, Motz Zachary, Yentes Jennifer M, Mukherjee Mukul
Department of Biomechanics, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha, NE, United States.
Department of Health & Kinesiology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, United States.
Front Physiol. 2022 Jun 13;13:916185. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2022.916185. eCollection 2022.
Exoskeleton assistive devices have been developed as a potential approach to solve gait deficits like paretic propulsion and reduced speed. However, it is unclear how these devices affect inter-limb coordination. The duration and the synchrony of gait coordination was assessed during passive exoskeleton-assisted walking in healthy young individuals. It was hypothesized that inter-limb coordination would be reduced in comparison to normal walking without assistance, thus demonstrating gait with exoskeleton to be more explorative and flexible. Eighteen participants were divided into two groups (EXO: = 9; NO EXO: = 9) and performed a 5-min walking trial at a preferred walking speed after a familiarization trial. The duration of inter-limb coordination was examined using cross-recurrence quantification analysis and the synchrony was measured using cross sample entropy. There were no significant differences in spatiotemporal measurements between the two groups. However, in comparison to the no exoskeleton group, there was a reduction in the duration of coordination (mean diagonal length: < 0.01) and the synchrony of coordination (entropy value: < 0.05) in the exoskeleton group. These results indicate that exoskeletal-assisted gait is characterized by reduced inter-limb coordination possibly for allowing gait patterns to be more explorative and flexible. This is important in rehabilitation of patients who suffer from coordination deficits.
外骨骼辅助设备已被开发出来，作为解决诸如动力性推进障碍和步行速度降低等步态缺陷的一种潜在方法。然而，目前尚不清楚这些设备如何影响肢体间的协调性。在健康年轻个体进行被动外骨骼辅助步行期间，对步态协调性的持续时间和同步性进行了评估。研究假设，与无辅助的正常步行相比，肢体间协调性会降低，从而表明外骨骼辅助下的步态更具探索性和灵活性。18名参与者被分为两组（外骨骼组：n = 9；无外骨骼组：n = 9），在进行适应性试验后，以偏好的步行速度进行了5分钟的步行试验。使用交叉递归量化分析检查肢体间协调性的持续时间，并使用交叉样本熵测量同步性。两组之间的时空测量结果没有显著差异。然而，与无外骨骼组相比，外骨骼组的协调性持续时间（平均对角线长度：p < 0.01）和协调性同步性（熵值：p < 0.05）有所降低。这些结果表明，外骨骼辅助步态的特点是肢体间协调性降低，这可能是为了使步态模式更具探索性和灵活性。这对于患有协调性缺陷的患者的康复具有重要意义。
