Joint-level coordination patterns for split-belt walking across different speed ratios

Locomotion is a highly flexible process, requiring rapid changes to gait due to changes in the environment or goals. Here, we used a split-belt treadmill to examine how the central nervous system coordinates a novel gait pattern. Existing research has focused on summary measures, most often step lengths, when describing changes induced while walking on the split-belt treadmill and during subsequent aftereffects. Here, we asked how the nervous system adjusts individual joint motions and the coordination pattern of the legs when people walk with one leg moving at either 2×, 3×, or 4× the speed of the other leg. We found that relative to tied-belt walking, split-belt perturbations change the timing relationships between the legs while most joint angle peaks and range of motion change little. The kinematic changes over the course of adaptation (i.e., from the beginning to end of a single split-belt walking bout) were subtle, particularly when comparing individual joint motions. The magnitude of the belt speed differences impacted intralimb coordination but did not produce consistent differences in most other measures. Most significant changes in kinematics occurred in the fast leg. Overall, interlimb timing changes drove a large proportion of the differences observed between tied-belt and split-belt gaits. Thus, it appears that the central nervous system can produce novel gait patterns through changes in coordination between legs that lead to new configurations at significant time points. These patterns can use within-limb and within-joint patterns that closely resemble those of normal walking.NEW & NOTEWORTHY We studied how the nervous system coordinates limb movements during asymmetric gait. Using a split-belt treadmill, we found that most changes in motion occurred when comparing motions between limbs, rather than among joints within a limb. Individual joint patterns resembled speed-matched comparisons, but this meant that joint movements became asymmetric during split-belt walking. These findings demonstrate that the nervous system can use consistent joint motions that are reconfigured in time to achieve new gait patterns.