BACKGROUND Reduced gait speed is common following traumatic brain injury (TBI). Several studies have found that people with TBI display increased lateral movement in their center of mass while walking. It has been hypothesized that reduced gait speed following TBI is a consequence of increased caution and postural instability, but reduced ankle power generation at push-off may also play a contr...

Walking on two legs is inherently unstable. Still, we humans perform remarkable well at it, mostly without falling. To gain more understanding of the role of the brain in controlling gait stability we measured brain activity using electro-encephalography (EEG) during stabilized and normal walking. Subjects walked on a treadmill in two conditions, each lasting 10 min; normal, and while being lat...

OBJECTIVES To examine the association between poorer performance on concurrent walking and reaction time and recurrent falls. DESIGN Cross-sectional analysis. SETTING Community. PARTICIPANTS Three hundred seventy-seven older community-dwelling adults (mean age+/-standard deviation 78+/-3). MEASUREMENTS Reaction times on push-button and visual-spatial decision tasks were assessed while s...

We previously reported that the probability of an older adult recovering from a forward trip and using a "lowering" strategy increases with decreased walking velocity and faster response time. To determine the within-subject interaction of these variables we asked three questions: (1) Is the body orientation at the time that the recovery foot is lowered to the ground ("tilt angle") critical for...

In this paper, a combination of ankle and hip strategy is used for push recovery of a position-controlled humanoid robot. Ankle strategy and hip strategy are equivalent to Center of Pressure (CoP) and Centroidal Moment Pivot (CMP) regulation respectively. For controlling the CMP and CoP we need a torque-controlled robot, however most of the conventional humanoid robots are position controlled. ...

Lower extremity amputation not only limits mobility, but also increases the risk of knee osteoarthritis of the intact limb. Dynamic walking models of non-amputees suggest that an appropriately timed push-off from the trailing limb can reduce collision forces on the leading limb. These collision forces may determine the peak knee external adduction moment (EAM), which has been linked to the deve...

STUDY DESIGN Multicenter randomized, controlled trial. OBJECTIVE To compare two physical therapy programs for patients with lumbar spinal stenosis. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA Scant evidence exists regarding effectiveness of nonsurgical management programs for lumbar spinal stenosis. METHODS Fifty-eight patients with lumbar spinal stenosis were randomized to one of two 6-week physical ther...

We intend to demonstrate that future treatment strategies in spinal cord injury (SCI) rehabilitation to restore function (SCI rehabilitation) should be based on the success of rigorous clinical trials with demonstrated effective interventions. Knowing the course of neurological recovery, its mechanism, and its measures will be essential in designing and executing these trials. We reviewed selec...

OBJECTIVE To determine if compensatory actions take place at the pelvis and other joints of the affected lower limb in subjects who were in an early stage of hip osteoarthritis (OA). DESIGN Nonrandomized, case-control study. SETTING A gait laboratory. PARTICIPANTS Seventeen patients with OA of the hip (clinical group) matched with 17 healthy elderly subjects (nonclinical group). INTERVE...

OBJECTIVE Pathological gaits have been shown to limit transfer between potential (PE) and kinetic (KE) energy during walking, which can increase locomotor costs. The purpose of this study was to examine whether energy exchange would be limited in people with knee osteoarthritis (OA). METHODS Ground reaction forces during walking were collected from 93 subjects with symptomatic knee OA (self-s...