A dynamic foot model for predictive simulations of human gait reveals causal relations between foot structure and whole-body mechanics.

ABSTRACT: The unique structure of the human foot is seen as a crucial adaptation for bipedalism. The foot's arched shape enables stiffening the foot to withstand high loads when pushing off, without compromising foot flexibility. Experimental studies demonstrated that manipulating foot stiffness has considerable effects on gait. In clinical practice, altered foot structure is associated with pathological gait. Yet, experimentally manipulating individual foot properties (e.g. arch height or tendon and ligament stiffness) is hard and therefore our understanding of how foot structure influences gait mechanics is still limited. Predictive simulations are a powerful tool to explore causal relationships between musculoskeletal properties and whole-body gait. However, musculoskeletal models used in three-d

SUBMITTER: D'Hondt L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11218950 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature