Healthy individuals are more maneuverable when walking slower while navigating a virtual obstacle course

Katherine L Hsieh; Riley C Sheehan; Jason M Wilken; Jonathan B Dingwell

doi:10.1016/j.gaitpost.2018.02.015

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Healthy individuals are more maneuverable when walking slower while navigating a virtual obstacle course

Journal article

Peer reviewed

Healthy individuals are more maneuverable when walking slower while navigating a virtual obstacle course

Katherine L Hsieh, Riley C Sheehan, Jason M Wilken and Jonathan B Dingwell

Gait & posture, Vol.61, pp.466-472

03/2018

DOI: 10.1016/j.gaitpost.2018.02.015

PMCID: PMC5866787

PMID: 29494819

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Abstract

•Healthy individuals are more maneuverable at slow walking speeds.•Those at the slow speed had a lower margin of stability during transitions.•People should switch walking speeds and strategies when navigating in the community. Maintaining stability, especially in the mediolateral direction, is important for successful walking. Navigating in the community, however, may require people to reduce stability to make quick lateral transitions, creating a tradeoff between stability and maneuverability. Walking slower can improve stability during steady state walking, but there remains a need to better understand how walking speed influences maneuverability. This study investigated how walking at different speeds influenced how individuals modulate both stability and maneuverability in a virtual obstacle course. Fifteen healthy adults walked on a treadmill in a virtual environment for 6 trials each at typical and slower speed. Participants made repeated transitions between virtual sets of arches displayed in any of 4 lanes. Participants were instructed to walk under the arches and hit as few arches as possible. To quantify stability, mean step width and mean lateral margin of stability (Mean MOS) were calculated and averaged for ipsilateral and contralateral steps. To quantify maneuverability, the number of arches hit when entering or exiting each arch set was calculated and averaged for each condition. Participants exhibited high levels of variability in their stepping patterns. Mean MOS and mean step width were significantly greater for the typical speed than slower speed for the ipsilateral steps (p < 0.001). Participants hit more arches during the typical speed than during the slow speed (p = 0.039). When walking at the slower speed, healthy individuals exhibited decreased stability of ipsilateral steps, but increased maneuverability and better transition performance.

Lateral transitions

Margin of stability

Maneuverability

Walking speed

Details

Title: Subtitle: Healthy individuals are more maneuverable when walking slower while navigating a virtual obstacle course
Creators: Katherine L Hsieh - Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Bethesda, MD, USA
Riley C Sheehan - Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Bethesda, MD, USA
Jason M Wilken - Military Performance Lab, Center for the Intrepid, JBSA Ft. Sam Houston, TX, USA
Jonathan B Dingwell - Department of Kinesiology & Health Education, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Gait & posture, Vol.61, pp.466-472
DOI: 10.1016/j.gaitpost.2018.02.015
PMID: 29494819
PMCID: PMC5866787
NLM abbreviation: Gait Posture
ISSN: 0966-6362
eISSN: 1879-2219
Publisher: Elsevier B.V
Grant note: name: NIH, award: 1-R01-HD059844, DoD/CDMRP/BADER Consortium W81XWH-11-2-0222
Language: English
Date published: 03/2018
Academic Unit: Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science
Record Identifier: 9984047978102771

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