Anticipatory postural adjustments of gait initiation affected by proprioceptive alterations of lower leg muscles

2021 ◽  
Vol 90 ◽  
pp. 123
Author(s):  
J. Kimijanova ◽  
D. Bzduskova ◽  
Z. Hirjakova ◽  
F. Hlavacka
2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veronica Farinelli ◽  
Francesco Bolzoni ◽  
Silvia Maria Marchese ◽  
Roberto Esposti ◽  
Paolo Cavallari

Anticipatory postural adjustments (APAs) are the coordinated muscular activities that precede the voluntary movements to counteract the associated postural perturbations. Many studies about gait initiation call APAs those activities that precede the heel-off of the leading foot, thus taking heel-off as the onset of voluntary movement. In particular, leg muscles drive the center of pressure (CoP) both laterally, to shift the body weight over the trailing foot and backward, to create a disequilibrium torque pushing forward the center of mass (CoM). However, since subjects want to propel their body rather than lift their foot, the onset of gait should be the CoM displacement, which starts with the backward CoP shift. If so, the leg muscles driving such a shift are the prime movers. Moreover, since the disequilibrium torque is mechanically equivalent to a forward force acting at the pelvis level, APAs should be required to link the body segments to the pelvis: distributing such concentrated force throughout the body would make all segments move homogeneously. In the aim of testing this hypothesis, we analyzed gait initiation in 15 right-footed healthy subjects, searching for activities in trunk muscles that precede the onset of the backward CoP shift. Subjects stood on a force plate for about 10 s and then started walking at their natural speed. A minimum of 10 trials were collected. A force plate measured the CoP position while wireless probes recorded the electromyographic activities. Recordings ascertained that at gait onset APAs develop in trunk muscles. On the right side, Rectus Abdominis and Obliquus Abdominis were activated in 11 and 13 subjects, respectively, starting on average 33 and 54 ms before the CoP shift; Erector Spinae (ES) at L2 and T3 levels was instead inhibited (9 and 7 subjects, 104 and 120 ms). On the contralateral side, the same muscles showed excitatory APAs (abdominals in 11 and 12 subjects, 27 and 82 ms; ES in 10 and 7 subjects, 75 and 32 ms). The results of this study provide a novel framework for distinguishing postural from voluntary actions, which may be relevant for the diagnosis and rehabilitation of gait disorders.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jana Kimijanová ◽  
Diana Bzdúšková ◽  
Zuzana Hirjaková ◽  
František Hlavačka

Gait initiation (GI) challenges the balance control system, especially in the elderly. To date, however, there is no consensus about the age effect on the anticipatory postural adjustments (APAs). There is also a lack of research on APAs in older adults after proprioceptive perturbation in the sagittal plane. This study aimed to compare the ability of young and older participants to generate APAs in response to the vibratory-induced perturbation delivered immediately before GI. Twenty-two young and 22 older adults performed a series of GI trials: (1) without previous vibration; (2) preceded by the vibration of triceps surae muscles; and (3) preceded by the vibration of tibialis anterior muscles. The APAs magnitude, velocity, time-to-peak, and duration were extracted from the center of pressure displacement in the sagittal plane. Young participants significantly modified their APAs during GI, whereas older adults did not markedly change their APAs when the body vertical was shifted neither backward nor forward. Significant age-related declines in APAs were observed also regardless of the altered proprioception.The results show that young adults actively responded to the altered proprioception from lower leg muscles and sensitively scaled APAs according to the actual position of the body verticality. Contrary, older adults were unable to adjust their postural responses indicating that the challenging transition from standing to walking probably requires higher reliance on the visual input. The understanding of age-related differences in APAs may help to design training programs for the elderly specifically targeted to improve balance control in different sensory conditions, particularly during gait initiation.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Radhika Desai ◽  
Nora E Fritz ◽  
Lisa Muratori ◽  
Jeffrey M. Hausdorff ◽  
Lori Quinn

Background and Purpose: Understanding the contribution of anticipatory postural adjustments (APA) on walking ability in individuals with Huntington's disease (HD) may provide insight into motor planning and the functional consequences of HD-specific cortical-basal ganglia pathway dysfunctions. The purpose of this study was to evaluate inertial measurement unit (IMU)-derived measures of APAs and first step parameters, and their contribution to gait speed, in individuals with and without manifest HD during a single-task and cognitive load condition. Methods: 33 individuals with manifest HD and 15 age-matched healthy controls wore three Opal APDM IMUs during a 14-meter walk during a single task and cognitive load condition. APA acceleration amplitudes, APA durations, first step range of motion (ROMs), and first step duration were compared, along with their relationship to gait speed. Results: Individuals with HD had significantly greater APA acceleration amplitudes, smaller first step ROMs and longer first step durations compared to healthy controls. No difference in APA durations were present between groups across conditions. Linear model results and significant correlations between mediolateral APA acceleration amplitudes and APA durations were found. Conclusions: Larger acceleration amplitudes, smaller first step ROMs of greater duration, accompanied by the preservation of APA durations reveal a discrepancy in movement scaling in HD. Additionally, the mediolateral component of the APA is likely a rate-limiting factor that drives a compensatory response in gait initiation. Additional research is needed to explore the neural correlates of HD-related movement scaling.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnaud Delafontaine ◽  
Thomas Vialleron ◽  
Tarek Hussein ◽  
Eric Yiou ◽  
Jean-Louis Honeine ◽  
...  

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 195
Author(s):  
Thierry Gélat ◽  
Laure Coudrat ◽  
Carole Ferrel-Chapus ◽  
Sylvie Vernazza-Martin

Previous studies have reported that anticipatory postural adjustments (APAs) associated with gait initiation are affected by emotion-eliciting images. This study examined the effect of the duration of exposure to emotional images on the APAs along the progression axis. From a standing posture, 39 young adults had to reach a table by walking (several steps) toward pleasant or unpleasant images, under two sets of conditions. In the short condition, the word “go” appeared on the image 500 ms after image onset and participants were instructed to initiate gait as soon as possible after the word go appeared. In the long condition, the same procedure was used but the word “go” appeared 3000 ms after image onset. Results demonstrated that the APAs were longer and larger for pleasant images than unpleasant ones, regardless of the condition (i.e., the duration of exposure to the images). In the same way, the peak of forward velocity of the centre of body mass (reached at the end of the first step) followed the same tendency. These results emphasized that APAs depended on image valence but not on the duration of images exposure and were consistent with those of previous studies and the motivational direction hypothesis.


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