School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences, The University of Queensland, Saint Lucia, Queensland, 4067, Australia.
Griffith Centre of Biomedical and Rehabilitation Engineering, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Queensland, 4215, Australia.
Proc Biol Sci. 2024 Jan 10;291(2014):20232543. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2023.2543.
The human foot is a complex structure that plays an important role in our capacity for upright locomotion. Comparisons of our feet with those of our closest extinct and extant relatives have linked shape features (e.g. the longitudinal and transverse arches, heel size and toe length) to specific mechanical functions. However, foot shape varies widely across the human population, so it remains unclear if and how specific shape variants are related to locomotor mechanics. Here we constructed a statistical shape-function model (SFM) from 100 healthy participants to directly explore the relationship between the shape and function of our feet. We also examined if we could predict the joint motion and moments occurring within a person's foot during locomotion based purely on shape features. The SFM revealed that the longitudinal and transverse arches, relative foot proportions and toe shape along with their associated joint mechanics were most variable. However, each of these only accounted for small proportions of the overall variation in shape, deformation and joint mechanics, most likely owing to the high structural complexity of the foot. Nevertheless, a leave-one-out analysis showed that the SFM can accurately predict joint mechanics of a novel foot, based on its shape and deformation.
人类的脚是一个复杂的结构，在我们直立行走的能力中起着重要作用。我们的脚与我们最亲近的已灭绝和现存亲属的脚进行比较，将形状特征（例如纵弓和横弓、脚跟大小和脚趾长度）与特定的机械功能联系起来。然而，脚的形状在人类群体中差异很大，因此尚不清楚特定的形状变体是否以及如何与运动力学相关。在这里，我们从 100 名健康参与者中构建了一个统计形状-功能模型（SFM），以直接探索脚的形状和功能之间的关系。我们还研究了是否可以仅基于形状特征来预测人在运动过程中脚内发生的关节运动和力矩。SFM 揭示了纵弓和横弓、相对的足部比例以及脚趾形状及其相关的关节力学是最可变的。然而，这些因素中的每一个仅占形状、变形和关节力学总体变化的很小一部分，这很可能是由于脚的结构高度复杂。尽管如此，一项留一法分析表明，SFM 可以根据脚的形状和变形准确预测新脚的关节力学。
