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Updated: Feb 11, 2026

Using a Split-belt Treadmill to Evaluate Generalization of Human Locomotor Adaptation
Published on: August 23, 2017
The differences between overground and treadmill walking in nonlinear, entropy-based and frequency variables derived
Lucia Bizovska1, Zdenek Svoboda1, Eliska Kubonova1
1Palacky University Olomouc, Faculty of Physical Culture, Department of Natural Sciences in Kinanthropology, Olomouc, Czech Republic.
Purpose:
The aim of this study was to compare gait stability and variability between walking conditions and age groups.
Methods:
Twenty-six healthy younger and older females participated. Trunk acceleration in the vertical (V), medial-lateral (ML) and anteriorposterior (AP) directions during 5 minutes walking overground and 3 minutes walking on the treadmill at self-selected speed were recorded. Root mean square and standard deviations of acceleration, stride time and its variability, Lyapunov exponents (LE), multiscale entropy (MSE) and harmonic ratios (HR) were computed.
Results:
Both age groups showed significantly higher stride time variability and short-term LE in all directions during overground walking. For the older group, overground walking showed higher V and AP standard deviation. Significantly lower values for overground walking were observed for long-term LE (V and ML for the younger group, ML for the older group), HR (ML for the older group) and MSE (V for the older group). Significant age-related differences were found for V long-term LE for overground walking.
Conclusions:
The present findings suggest that both linear and advanced computational techniques for gait stability and variability assessment in older adults are sensitive to walking conditions.
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