American Society of Biomechanics Journal of Biomechanics Award 2018: Adaptive motor planning of center-of-mass trajectory during goal-directed walking in novel environments

To aid in the successful execution of goal-directed walking (discrete movement from a start location to an end target) the central nervous system forms a predictive motor plan. For the motor plan to be effective, it must be adapted in response to environmental changes. Despite motor planning being i...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of biomechanics 2019-09, Vol.94, p.5-12
Main Authors: Bucklin, Mary A., Wu, Mengnan/Mary, Brown, Geoffrey, Gordon, Keith E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptation
Biomechanics
Center of mass
Central nervous system
Changing environments
Energy consumption
Environmental changes
Force
Gait
Internal model
Motor control
Nervous system
Planning
R&D
Research & development
Trajectory planning
Velocity
Walking
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:To aid in the successful execution of goal-directed walking (discrete movement from a start location to an end target) the central nervous system forms a predictive motor plan. For the motor plan to be effective, it must be adapted in response to environmental changes. Despite motor planning being inherent to goal-directed walking, it is not understood how the nervous system adapts these plans to interact with changing environments. Our objective was to understand how people adapt motor plans of center of mass (COM) trajectory during goal-directed walking in response to a consistent change in environmental dynamics. Participants preformed a series of goal-directed walking trials in a novel environment created by a cable robot that applied a lateral force field to their COM. We hypothesized that participants would adapt to the environment by forming an internal model of their COM trajectory within the force field. Our findings support this hypothesis. Initially, we found COM trajectory significantly deviated in the same direction as the applied field, relative to baseline (no field) (p = 0.002). However, with practice in the field, COM trajectory adapted back to the baseline (p = 0.6). When we unexpectedly removed the field, participants demonstrated after-effects, COM trajectory deviated in the direction opposite of the field relative to baseline (p 
ISSN:0021-9290
1873-2380
DOI:10.1016/j.jbiomech.2019.07.030