Mechanisms of gait phase entrainment in healthy subjects during rhythmic electrical stimulation of the medial gastrocnemius.

ABSTRACT: Studies have shown that human gait entrains to rhythmic bursts of ankle torque for perturbation intervals both slightly shorter and slightly longer than the natural stride period while walking on a treadmill and during overground walking, with phase alignment such that the torque adds to ankle push-off. This study investigated whether human gait also entrains to align the phase of rhythmic electrical stimulation of the gastrocnemius muscle with the timing of ankle push-off. In addition, this study investigated the muscle response to electrical stimulation at different phases of the gait cycle. We found that for both treadmill and overground walking entrainment was observed with phasing that aligned the stimuli with ankle push-off or just before foot contact. Achilles tendon wave speed meas

SUBMITTER: Thorp JE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7584166 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature