A model of the mechanism controlling neuromuscular activation during ambulation based on feedback control hypothhesis.

As tested by many investigators, locomotor performance at steady state does not involve high conscious systems but takes place almost automatically. A great number of experiments on animals seem to demonstrate that the afferent proprioceptive signals play an important role in locomotion and that the higher nervous centers act in order to activate the lower control systems. On the basis of previous findings, we hypothesized that the descending signal from the higher nervous centers can lower the threshold of intervention of the proprioceptive signals on the alpha-motoneurons. The influences of the afferent signals on the various muscles enable them to realize the pattern of the basic muscular activity that we can record from walking subjects. A simulation of the model of human locomotion has been implemented on a digital computer and the theoretical results are compared with the experimental findings.