Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Ingenuity Labs Research Institute, Queen's University, Kingston, K7L 2N9, Canada.
Sci Rep. 2023 May 24;13(1):8432. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-34831-3.
Healthy humans are proficient at maintaining stability when faced with diverse walking conditions, however, the control strategies that lead to this proficiency are unclear. Previous laboratory-based research has predominantly concluded that corrective stepping is the main strategy, but whether this finding holds when facing everyday obstacles outside of the laboratory is uncertain. We investigated changes in gait stability behaviour when walking outdoors in the summer and winter, hypothesizing that as ground conditions worsened in the winter, the stepping strategy would be hindered. Stability would then be maintained through compensatory strategies such as with ankle torques and trunk rotation. Data was collected in the summer and winter using inertial measurement units to collect kinematics and instrumented insoles to collect vertical ground reaction forces. Using the goodness of fit for a multivariate regression between the centre of mass state and foot placement we found that, counter to our hypothesis, stepping was not hindered by winter conditions. Instead, the stepping strategy was modified to increase the anterior-posterior margin of stability, increasing the resistance to a forward loss of stability. With stepping being unhindered, we did not observe any additional compensation from the ankle or trunk strategies.
健康人在面对多样化的行走条件时，能够熟练地维持稳定性，然而，导致这种熟练程度的控制策略尚不清楚。先前基于实验室的研究主要得出结论，认为纠正性迈步是主要策略，但在实验室之外的日常生活中遇到障碍物时，这一发现是否成立还不确定。我们研究了在夏季和冬季户外行走时步态稳定性行为的变化，假设在冬季地面条件恶化时，迈步策略会受到阻碍。稳定性将通过踝关节扭矩和躯干旋转等补偿策略来维持。数据是在夏季和冬季使用惯性测量单元收集运动学数据和仪器化鞋垫收集垂直地面反力来收集的。使用质量中心状态和脚部放置之间的多元回归的拟合优度，我们发现，与我们的假设相反，冬季条件并没有阻碍迈步。相反，迈步策略被修改为增加前后稳定性余量，增加对向前失稳的抵抗力。由于迈步不受阻碍，我们没有观察到来自踝关节或躯干策略的任何额外补偿。
