Balance Recovery after an Unexpected Media-Lateral Gait Perturbation

In this study we examined the recovery responses to sideways pushes to the right shoulder during walking. To examine a realistic situation the width of the walkway was restricted (boundary condition). Perturbations were applied randomly without previous knowledge of the subjects at either right or left single support phases of the gait. Perturbations were triggered by foot contact on a force plate mounted in the laboratory walkway. Planar displacement of the center of mass and rotational angles of the trunk in the frontal and transversal planes show that a) boundary conditions affected mainly the control of movement in the media-lateral direction, and b) gait phase influenced chiefly the rotational movement of the trunk in the transversal and frontal planes. The results indicate that foot-placement strategy was applied for balance recovery after perturbation.

Keywords:

Media-lateral stability , gait perturbation , balance recovery