RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 People can learn new walking patterns without walking
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2020.04.02.021949
DO 10.1101/2020.04.02.021949
A1 Christine N. Song
A1 Jan Stenum
A1 Kristan A. Leech
A1 Chloe Keller
A1 Ryan T. Roemmich
YR 2020
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/04/03/2020.04.02.021949.abstract
AB 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.