Center of Advanced Technologies in Rehabilitation, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan 5266202, Israel.
Department of Neurological Rehabilitation, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan 5266202, Israel.
Sensors (Basel). 2024 Sep 21;24(18):6105. doi: 10.3390/s24186105.
Coordinated movement of four limbs is a hallmark of healthy locomotion. No measures exist to quantify four-limb coordination. This study aimed to investigate temporal four-limb coordination and proposed a new metric for quantifying the inter-limb phase of rhythmic locomotion-related movements. Kinetic data of arm and leg movements generated during walking (self-selected speed) from healthy adults were used to extract the phases (φ) between all possible limb pairings. The φ series were used to calculate each pair's Phase Coordination Index (PCI). The PCI quantifies the accuracy and consistency of generating anti-phased rhythmic movements (lower PCI values mean better coordination). We also calculated the Quadruple-PCI (Q-PCI) by combining all φ values of all limb pairs. We found a significant correlation between the PCI values of all limb pairings and the Q-PCI (pairs involving arms: Pearson's R > 0.79, < 0.001; leg-leg: Pearson's R = 0.3, < 0.01). The PCI values that involve arms (median values between 6.5% and 8.3%) were significantly higher than the leg-leg PCI (median values between 3.8% and 4.1%), and the Q-PCI (median values between 8.3% and 9.7%) was significantly higher than all other PCI values. We also found a negative correlation between the arm swing amplitude and the PCI values (Spearman's Rho of different limb pairings ranging from -0.25 to -0.5, < 0.05), suggesting that higher arm swing amplitude leads to better coordination. Four-limb coordination analysis is a novel method for comprehensive assessment of gait coordination, which is often compromised among persons with disabilities.
四肢协调运动是健康运动的标志。目前还没有衡量四肢协调的方法。本研究旨在探讨四肢的时间协调，并提出一种新的度量标准来量化与有节奏的运动相关的四肢相位。使用健康成年人行走（自主选择速度）时产生的手臂和腿部运动的动力学数据来提取所有可能的肢体对之间的相位（φ）。使用 φ 系列来计算每对的相位协调指数（PCI）。PCI 量化了产生反相有节奏运动的准确性和一致性（较低的 PCI 值意味着更好的协调性）。我们还通过组合所有肢体对的所有 φ 值来计算四重 PCI（Q-PCI）。我们发现所有肢体对的 PCI 值与 Q-PCI 之间存在显著相关性（涉及手臂的对：Pearson 的 R ＞0.79， ＜0.001；腿-腿：Pearson 的 R = 0.3， ＜0.01）。涉及手臂的 PCI 值（中位数在 6.5%和 8.3%之间）明显高于腿-腿 PCI（中位数在 3.8%和 4.1%之间），而 Q-PCI（中位数在 8.3%和 9.7%之间）明显高于所有其他 PCI 值。我们还发现手臂摆动幅度与 PCI 值之间存在负相关（不同肢体对之间的 Spearman's Rho 从-0.25 到-0.5， ＜0.05），这表明手臂摆动幅度越大，协调越好。四肢协调分析是一种全面评估步态协调性的新方法，而步态协调性往往在残疾人士中受到影响。
