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People can learn new walking patterns without walking

Christine N. Song, Jan Stenum, Kristan A. Leech, Chloe Keller, Ryan T. Roemmich
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.02.021949
Christine N. Song
1Center for Movement Studies, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD 21205
2Dept of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205
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Jan Stenum
1Center for Movement Studies, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD 21205
3Dept of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205
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Kristan A. Leech
4Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033
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Chloe Keller
1Center for Movement Studies, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD 21205
5Fischell Department of Bioengineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742
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Ryan T. Roemmich
1Center for Movement Studies, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD 21205
3Dept of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205
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  • For correspondence: rroemmi1@jhmi.edu
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ABSTRACT

Humans can learn many new walking patterns. People have learned to snowshoe up mountains, racewalk marathons, and march in precise synchrony. But what is required to learn a new walking pattern? Here, we demonstrate that people can learn new walking patterns without actually walking. Through a series of experiments, we observe that stepping with only one leg can facilitate learning of an entirely new walking pattern (i.e., split-belt treadmill walking). We find that the nervous system learns from the relative motion between the legs – whether or not both legs are moving – and can transfer this learning to novel gaits. We also show that locomotor learning requires active movement: observing another person adapt their gait did not result in significantly faster learning. These findings reveal that people can learn new walking patterns without bilateral gait training, as stepping with one leg can facilitate adaptive learning that transfers to novel gait patterns.

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.
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Posted April 03, 2020.
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People can learn new walking patterns without walking
Christine N. Song, Jan Stenum, Kristan A. Leech, Chloe Keller, Ryan T. Roemmich
bioRxiv 2020.04.02.021949; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.02.021949
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People can learn new walking patterns without walking
Christine N. Song, Jan Stenum, Kristan A. Leech, Chloe Keller, Ryan T. Roemmich
bioRxiv 2020.04.02.021949; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.02.021949

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