Phase resetting of human walking

This thesis is an investigation of the neural control of unimpaired human walking. Specifically, this work studied the potential for phase resetting of human walking by analyzing results from treadmill walking experiments. Subjects walked on a treadmill while wearing a robotic device that attaches to the lower leg, which applied 6 Nm torque perturbations to the ankle that acted to plantarflex the ankle. The effect of these perturbations on the stride period was then analyzed to determine the potential for phase resetting of the gait. For the experimental setup used, no phase resetting was found. This was determined by fitting a Fourier series regression to the data and finding very low R² values for all subjects, ranging from 0.04 to 0.10, which implies that no underlying periodic curve exists in the data. This evidence of zero phase resetting is consistent with prior work that indicates some type of kinematic controller is present during walking.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2011

Author dc:creator

• Klenk, Daniel E

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Neville Hogan.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/68947

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/68947