A Predictive Framework to Provide Neuromuscular Insights in Reshaping Dynamic Balance during Transient Locomotion

Anticipated and unanticipated directional changes are commonplace in daily lives. The need for dynamic balance is amplified when these transitions are performed in an unplanned (i.e., unanticipated) manner. In this study, we used predictive simulations and optimal control constructs to test a method for reshaping dynamic balance of unanticipated crossover cuts. We also compare how such improvements can be mediated at the musculotendon level. Our study shows that the performance of unanticipated crossover cuts can be optimized to improve dynamic balance, and highlight the potential for predictive simulations and optimal control to provide quantitative targets for reshaping dynamic balance in unanticipated crossover cuts-targets which are biologically-feasible.Clinical Relevance-This approach could inform task-specific rehabilitation therapy by suggesting how to reshape an individual's dynamic balance and which joint-level kinematic adjustments and muscle groups would be optimal to engage in doing so.