Effects of Auditory Stimuli on Beat-Synchronized Long Distance Walking: Part A - Energize on Country Music

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory Shay

In well documented studies, walking and music have independently shown substantial medical, health, productivity, and other human benefits. When music is combined with walking, and especially when the walking is done in synchrony to the beat, the music can stimulate faster walking without apparent awareness, the “velocity effect”. Some studies have reported that music that is either familiar, more enjoyable, and/or has higher “groove” tends to be more stimulating, and that some music can actually be sedating resulting in a slower speed relative to that of walking to a metronome at the same cadence. Research illuminating the velocity effect has mostly been conducted over relatively short stepping distances in a laboratory or similar outdoor setting. The current study examines walking on a real-world long distance outdoor track with a single genre of music that was at least somewhat familiar and somewhat enjoyable to the test subject. In this study, the test subject stepped in self-instructed synchrony with confirmed high accuracy to two types of auditory stimuli – either to the beat of a metronome (a presumed neutral source or what might be considered a most rudimentary form of music), or to the beat of a broad-spectrum of country music continuously over a 2-mile course. Nine metronome tempos and twenty-one country music tempos were examined in a walkable range of 90 to 130 beats per minute (BPM), and the effects of the music and metronome on walking performance were examined and quantified. Overall, the mix of country music was significantly more energizing than the metronome providing a relatively consistent 10% increase in step length and a resulting 10% increase in speed over the entire tempo/cadence range. Speed as a function of tempo was essentially linear in the beat range for both auditory stimuli with an apparent increase in speed relative to the trendlines occurring near 120 BPM, a preferred human response frequency reported in some prior investigations.

2020 ◽  
Vol 223 (20) ◽  
pp. jeb228460
Author(s):  
Glenna T. Clifton ◽  
David Holway ◽  
Nicholas Gravish

ABSTRACTMany walking insects use vision for long-distance navigation, but the influence of vision on rapid walking performance that requires close-range obstacle detection and directing the limbs towards stable footholds remains largely untested. We compared Argentine ant (Linepithema humile) workers in light versus darkness while traversing flat and uneven terrain. In darkness, ants reduced flat-ground walking speeds by only 5%. Similarly, the approach speed and time to cross a step obstacle were not significantly affected by lack of lighting. To determine whether tactile sensing might compensate for vision loss, we tracked antennal motion and observed shifts in spatiotemporal activity as a result of terrain structure but not illumination. Together, these findings suggest that vision does not impact walking performance in Argentine ant workers. Our results help contextualize eye variation across ants, including subterranean, nocturnal and eyeless species that walk in complete darkness. More broadly, our findings highlight the importance of integrating vision, proprioception and tactile sensing for robust locomotion in unstructured environments.


Author(s):  
Jack Bish ◽  
Terence Honikman ◽  
Jason Sigel ◽  
Carl Nash ◽  
Donald Friedman

To date, human responses in motor vehicle rollover accidents have been studied through the use of Hybrid III dummies in dolly vehicle rollover tests, quasi-static spit tests where the vehicle and occupant are rotated slowly about the rotation axis of the spit fixture, computer simulations and vehicle drop tests. To demonstrate human responses to dynamic rollover conditions more accurately we designed and built a fixture to accommodate a passenger compartment in a hoop structure that rotates as it translates. The rotational axis of the hoop structure is offset from the rotational axis of the passenger compartment to replicate vehicle center of gravity motion seen in dolly rollover tests. Testing showed the difference in restraint behavior depending upon whether the occupant was seated on the near (initially leading) or far side. It demonstrated that human and Hybrid III dummy neck response is very different. The human test subject received no injuries from diving into the roof of the passenger compartment even though this is the predicted injury mechanism reported in several technical papers.


2008 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 672-675 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark G. Bowden ◽  
Chitralakshmi K. Balasubramanian ◽  
Andrea L. Behrman ◽  
Steven A. Kautz

Background. For clinical trials in stroke rehabilitation, self-selected walking speed has been used to stratify persons to predict functional walking status and to define clinical meaningfulness of changes. However, this stratification was validated primarily using self-report questionnaires. Objective. This study aims to validate the speed-based classification system with quantitative measures of walking performance. Methods. A total of 59 individuals who had hemiparesis for more than 6 months after stroke participated in this study. Spatiotemporal and kinetic measures included the percentage of total propulsion generated by the paretic leg (Pp), the percentage of the stride length accounted for by the paretic leg step length (PSR), and the percentage of the gait cycle spent in paretic preswing (PPS). Additional measures included the synergy portion of the Fugl-Meyer Assessment and the average number of steps/day in the home and community measured with a step activity monitor. Participants were stratified by self-selected gait speed into 3 groups: household (<0.4 m/s), limited community (0.4-0.8 m/s), and community (>0.8 m/s) ambulators. Group differences were analyzed using a Kruskal—Wallis H test with rank sums test post hoc analyses. Results. Analyses demonstrated a main effect in all measures, but only steps/day and PPS demonstrated a significant difference between all 3 groups. Conclusions. Classifying individuals poststroke by self-selected walking speed is associated with home and community-based walking behavior as quantified by daily step counts. In addition, PPS distinguishes all 3 groups. Pp differentiates the moderate from the fast groups and may represent a contribution to mechanisms of increasing walking speed. Speed classification presents a useful yet simple mechanism to stratify subjects poststroke and may be mechanically linked to changes in PPS.


2007 ◽  
Vol 88 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chitralakshmi K. Balasubramanian ◽  
Mark G. Bowden ◽  
Richard R. Neptune ◽  
Steven A. Kautz

Author(s):  
Yingjiao Xiang ◽  
Baishun Sun ◽  
Zhiqin Wang ◽  
Fatma Taher

Long-distance running is an advantage of Chinese sports, but compared with the world level, there is still a big gap. Therefore, an advanced long-distance running training system is urgently needed to scientifically train our long-distance runners to change this situation. The purpose of this article is to study the long-distance running training system under inertial sensor network. According to the actual situation at home and abroad, a human gait analysis system based on inertial sensors is designed. Gait parameters are transformed into clinical medicine through related algorithms and software platforms. Experimental results show that although the step length calculated by the gait analysis system is different from the actual step length, the error value is small, kept below 3 cm, and the error percentage is less than 2%, which meets the accuracy requirements of gait analysis. This fully proves the feasibility of the zero-speed correction method in gait analysis.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alireza Chamanzar ◽  
Sarah M Haigh ◽  
Pulkit Grover ◽  
Marlene Behrmann

Individuals with migraine generally experience photophobia and/or phonophobia during and between migraine attacks. Many different mechanisms have been postulated to explain these migraine phenomena including abnormal patterns of connectivity across the cortex. The results, however, remain contradictory and there is no clear consensus on the nature of the cortical abnormalities in migraine. Here, we uncover alterations in cortical patterns of coherence (connectivity) in interictal migraineurs during the presentation of visual and auditory stimuli, as well as at rest, to capitalize on the sensory sensitivities that are characteristic of migraine, and to reconcile the conflicting literature on migraine cortical connectivity. We used a high-density electroencephalography (HD-EEG) system, with 128 customized electrode locations, to measure inter- and intra-hemispheric coherence from 17 individuals with migraine (12 female) in the interictal period, and 18 age- and gender-matched healthy control subjects, during visual (vertical grating pattern) and auditory (modulated tone) stimulation which varied in temporal frequency (4 and 6Hz), and during rest. To ensure that participants were attending, participants performed a color detection task at fixation. Analyses of the EEG signal included characterizing the inter- and intra-hemisphere coherence between the scalp EEG channels over 2-second time intervals and over different frequency bands at different spatial distances and spatial clusters, and Pearson's correlation coefficients (PCCs) were estimated at zero-lag. Repeated measures (between-group) analyses-of-variance with post hoc multiple comparison correction were conducted. Relative to controls, migraineurs exhibited significantly (i) faster color detection performance; (ii) lower long-distance spatial coherence of alpha-band activity during both evoked conditions, regardless of the stimulation frequency; (iii) lower coherence between the right frontal cluster and all clusters in the left hemisphere (inter-hemisphere coherence) during 4Hz auditory and visual stimulation; and (iv) lower long-distance coherence (in all frequency bands) between the right occipito-parietal cluster and all other clusters during the (4Hz and 6Hz) visual stimuli. No significant group differences were observed in the resting state data. The abnormal patterns of EEG coherence in interictal migraineurs during visual and auditory stimuli may be associated with cortical hyper-excitability in migraineurs.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin M. Henderson ◽  
Andrew E. Derocher

The Cape Bathurst polynya and flaw lead (CBP) are major, predictable habitat features with ≤15% ice cover in an otherwise ice-covered Beaufort Sea, and thought to provide hunting opportunities for polar bears (Ursus maritimus Phipps, 1774). We assessed 78 adult (female; with and without cubs) and subadult (male and female) polar bears’ use of the CBP from October – June, 2007–2014. The CBP was up to 725 km wide in autumn, ice-covered in winter, and <306 km wide in spring. Seventy-nine percent (n = 62) of the bears used the CBP (≥1 location <2.4 km, or one 4 h step length, from the CBP). Use was higher for solitary adult females and subadult males, which travelled faster with low turning angles along wider sections than females with offspring and subadult females. Bears were closest to the CBP during the spring hyperphagia season. While a wider CBP did not prevent crossing, bears primarily crossed from the coast towards pack ice at locations 53% narrower than areas not crossed. Bears might avoid crossing when it would require a long-distance swim. The CBP affects polar bear ecology by providing hunting habitat and a corridor that could increase prey encounters but may affect movement.


2019 ◽  
Vol 122 (1) ◽  
pp. 277-289 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica L. Allen ◽  
Trisha M. Kesar ◽  
Lena H. Ting

Muscle coordination is often impaired after stroke, leading to deficits in the control of walking and balance. In this study, we examined features of muscle coordination associated with reduced walking performance in chronic stroke survivors using motor module (a.k.a. muscle synergy) analysis. We identified differences between stroke survivors and age-similar neurotypical controls in the modular control of both overground walking and standing reactive balance. In contrast to previous studies that demonstrated reduced motor module number poststroke, our cohort of stroke survivors did not exhibit a reduction in motor module number compared with controls during either walking or reactive balance. Instead, the pool of motor modules common to walking and reactive balance was smaller, suggesting reduced generalizability of motor module function across behaviors. The motor modules common to walking and reactive balance tended to be less variable and more distinct, suggesting more reliable output compared with motor modules specific to either behavior. Greater motor module generalization in stroke survivors was associated with faster walking speed, more normal step length asymmetry, and narrower step widths. Our work is the first to show that motor module generalization across walking and balance may help to distinguish important and clinically relevant differences in walking performance across stroke survivors that would have been overlooked by examining only a single behavior. Finally, because similar relationships between motor module generalization and walking performance have been demonstrated in healthy young adults and individuals with Parkinson’s disease, this suggests that motor module generalization across walking and balance may be important for well-coordinated walking. NEW & NOTEWORTHY This is the first work to simultaneously examine neuromuscular control of walking and standing reactive balance in stroke survivors. We show that motor module generalization across these behaviors (i.e., recruiting common motor modules) is reduced compared with controls and is associated with slower walking speeds, asymmetric step lengths, and larger step widths. This is true despite no between-group differences in module number, suggesting that motor module generalization across walking and balance is important for well-coordinated walking.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document