Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

Foot placement control can be trained: Older adults learn to walk more stable, when ankle moments are constrained

View ORCID ProfileM. Mahaki, View ORCID ProfileA.M. van Leeuwen, View ORCID ProfileS.M. Bruijn, View ORCID ProfileN. Van der Velde, View ORCID ProfileJ.H. van Dieën
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.03.10.532038
M. Mahaki
1Department of Human Movement Sciences, Faculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam Movement Sciences, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
4Amsterdam Movement Sciences, research program(s), Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for M. Mahaki
A.M. van Leeuwen
1Department of Human Movement Sciences, Faculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam Movement Sciences, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2Institute of Brain and Behavior, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
4Amsterdam Movement Sciences, research program(s), Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for A.M. van Leeuwen
  • For correspondence: moiravleeuwen@gmail.com
S.M. Bruijn
1Department of Human Movement Sciences, Faculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam Movement Sciences, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2Institute of Brain and Behavior, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
4Amsterdam Movement Sciences, research program(s), Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for S.M. Bruijn
N. Van der Velde
3Department of Internal Medicine/Geriatrics, Amsterdam University Medical centers, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
4Amsterdam Movement Sciences, research program(s), Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for N. Van der Velde
J.H. van Dieën
1Department of Human Movement Sciences, Faculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam Movement Sciences, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
4Amsterdam Movement Sciences, research program(s), Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for J.H. van Dieën
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Data/Code
  • Preview PDF
Loading

Abstract

Falls are a problem, especially for older adults. Placing our feet accurately relative to the center-of-mass helps us to prevent falling during gait. The degree of foot placement control with respect to the center-of mass kinematic state is decreased in older as compared to young adults. Here, we attempted to train foot placement control in healthy older adults. Ten older adults trained by walking on shoes with a narrow ridge underneath (LesSchuh), restricting mediolateral center-of-pressure shifts. As a training effect, we expected improved foot placement control during normal walking. A training session consisted of a normal walking condition, followed by a training condition on LesSchuh and finally an after-effect condition. Participants performed six of such training sessions, spread across three weeks. As a control, before the first training session, we included two similar sessions, but on normal shoes only. We evaluated whether a training effect was observed across sessions and weeks in a repeated-measures design. Whilst walking with LesSchuh, the magnitude of foot placement error reduced half-a-millimeter between sessions within a week (cohen’s d=0.394). As a training effect in normal walking, the magnitude of foot placement errors was significantly lower compared to the control week, by one millimeter in weeks 2 (cohen’s d=0.686) and 3 (cohen’s d=0.780) and by two millimeters in week 4 (cohen’s d=0.875). Local dynamic stability of normal walking also improved significantly. More precise foot placement may thus have led to improved stability. It remains to be determined whether the training effects were the result of walking on LesSchuh or from repeated treadmill walking itself. Moreover, enhancement of mechanisms beyond the scope of our outcome measures may have improved stability. At the retention test, gait stability returned to similar levels as in the control week. Yet, a reduction in foot placement error persisted.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Footnotes

  • ↵# Shared first author

  • We added a missing affiliation.

  • https://surfdrive.surf.nl/files/index.php/s/6fwmnAaH3hfxVCu

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted March 18, 2023.
Download PDF
Data/Code
Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Foot placement control can be trained: Older adults learn to walk more stable, when ankle moments are constrained
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
Foot placement control can be trained: Older adults learn to walk more stable, when ankle moments are constrained
M. Mahaki, A.M. van Leeuwen, S.M. Bruijn, N. Van der Velde, J.H. van Dieën
bioRxiv 2023.03.10.532038; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.03.10.532038
Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo LinkedIn logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Foot placement control can be trained: Older adults learn to walk more stable, when ankle moments are constrained
M. Mahaki, A.M. van Leeuwen, S.M. Bruijn, N. Van der Velde, J.H. van Dieën
bioRxiv 2023.03.10.532038; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.03.10.532038

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Biophysics
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (4237)
  • Biochemistry (9155)
  • Bioengineering (6797)
  • Bioinformatics (24052)
  • Biophysics (12149)
  • Cancer Biology (9562)
  • Cell Biology (13814)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (7653)
  • Ecology (11729)
  • Epidemiology (2066)
  • Evolutionary Biology (15534)
  • Genetics (10663)
  • Genomics (14346)
  • Immunology (9502)
  • Microbiology (22876)
  • Molecular Biology (9113)
  • Neuroscience (49080)
  • Paleontology (357)
  • Pathology (1487)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (2576)
  • Physiology (3851)
  • Plant Biology (8347)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1473)
  • Synthetic Biology (2299)
  • Systems Biology (6202)
  • Zoology (1302)