Daily acute intermittent hypoxia combined with walking practice enhances walking performance but not intralimb motor coordination in persons with chronic incomplete spinal cord injury.

ABSTRACT: Persons living with incomplete spinal cord injuries (SCI) often struggle to regain independent walking due to deficits in walking mechanics. They often dedicate many weeks of gait training before benefits to emerge, with additional training needed for benefits to persist. Recent studies in humans with SCI found that daily bouts of breathing low oxygen (acute intermittent hypoxia, AIH) prior to locomotor training elicited persistent (weeks) improvement in overground walking speed and endurance. AIH-induced improvements in overground walking may result from changes in control strategies that also enhance intralimb coordination; however, this possibility remains untested. Here, we examined the extent to which daily AIH combined with walking practice (AIH + WALK) improved overground walking pe

SUBMITTER: Tan AQ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8119335 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature