Assessment of stabilizing feedback control of walking: A tutorial

Area of Science:

• Biomechanics
• Neuroscience
• Human Movement Science

Background:

• Walking stability relies on controlling the body's center of mass relative to the base of support.
• Active feedback control, involving sensory processing and motor commands, is essential for stabilizing gait, particularly in the mediolateral direction.
• Gait stabilization can be compromised in aging populations and individuals with certain diseases.

Purpose of the Study:

• To provide a tutorial on using gait analysis to assess stabilizing feedback control during human walking.
• To present a range of methods, from basic kinematics to full-body motion capture and electromyography, for evaluating gait control.
• To offer open-access code for calculating these analyses.

Main Methods:

• Methods utilize varying input data, from limited marker data (feet, pelvis) to comprehensive full-body kinematics and electromyography.
• Analyses include kinematics, inverse dynamics, and assessment of feedback control at three distinct levels.
• The three levels of assessment are: center of mass (CoM) movement and ground reaction forces, CoM movement and foot placement, and CoM movement and joint moments/muscle activity.

Main Results:

• The tutorial demonstrates how to calculate metrics for assessing stabilizing feedback control of walking.
• It provides a framework for evaluating gait control using different levels of data complexity and analytical depth.
• Open-access code in Matlab and Python is available for replicating the analyses.

Conclusions:

• Gait analysis offers valuable insights into the neural control mechanisms underlying walking stability.
• The presented methods and tools facilitate the assessment of stabilizing feedback control across different research and clinical applications.
• Understanding these control mechanisms is crucial for addressing gait impairments in various populations.