Forward and backward walking share the same motor modules and locomotor adaptation strategies.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Zych M
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8405989 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Background and research questionWalking impairment remains a major limitation to functional independence after stroke. Yet, comprehensive and effective strategies to improve walking function after stroke are presently limited. Backward Locomotor Treadmill Training (BLTT) is a promising training approach for improving walking function; however, little is known about its mechanism of effect or the relationship between backward walking training and resulting overground forward walking performance. This study aims to determine the effects of serial BLTT on spatial aspects of backward and forward walking in chronic post-stroke individuals with residual walking impairment.MethodsThirty-nine adults (>6 months post-stroke) underwent 6 days of BLTT (3 × /week) over 2 weeks. Outcome measures included PRE-POST changes in backward and forward walking speeds, paretic and non-paretic step lengths, and single-support center of pressure distances. To determine the association between BLTT and overground walking, correlation analyses comparing training-related changes in these variables were performed.ResultsWe report an overall improvement in BLTT and overground walking speeds, bilateral step lengths, and single-support center of pressure distances over six training sessions. Further, there were weak positive associations between PRE-POST changes in BLTT speed, BLTT paretic step length, and overground forward walking speed.Conclusion and significanceOur findings suggest that individuals with chronic post-stroke walking impairment experience improvements in spatial walking measures during BLTT and overground. Therefore, BLTT may be a potential adjunctive training approach for post-stroke walking rehabilitation.
| S-EPMC8963981 | biostudies-literature
Project description:How do descending inputs from the brain control leg motor circuits to change how an animal walks? Conceptually, descending neurons are thought to function either as command-type neurons, in which a single type of descending neuron exerts a high-level control to elicit a coordinated change in motor output, or through a population coding mechanism, whereby a group of neurons, each with local effects, act in combination to elicit a global motor response. The Drosophila Moonwalker Descending Neurons (MDNs), which alter leg motor circuit dynamics so that the fly walks backwards, exemplify the command-type mechanism. Here, we identify several dozen MDN target neurons within the leg motor circuits, and show that two of them mediate distinct and highly-specific changes in leg muscle activity during backward walking: LBL40 neurons provide the hindleg power stroke during stance phase; LUL130 neurons lift the legs at the end of stance to initiate swing. Through these two effector neurons, MDN directly controls both the stance and swing phases of the backward stepping cycle. These findings suggest that command-type descending neurons can also operate through the distributed control of local motor circuits.
| S-EPMC7710706 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Forward walking speed (FWS) is known to be an important predictor of mobility, falls, and falls-related efficacy poststroke. However, backward walking speed (BWS) is emerging as an assessment tool to reveal mobility deficits in people poststroke that may not be apparent with FWS alone. Since backward walking is more challenging than forward walking, falls efficacy may play a role in the relationship between one's preferred FWS and BWS. We tested the hypothesis that people with lower falls efficacy would have a stronger positive relationship between FWS and BWS than those with higher falls efficacy. Forty-five individuals (12.9 ± 5.6 months poststroke) participated in this observational study. We assessed FWS with the 10-meter walk test and BWS with the 3-meter backward walk test. The modified Falls-Efficacy Scale (mFES) quantified falls efficacy. A moderated regression analysis examined the hypothesis. FWS was positively associated with BWS (R2 = 0.26). The addition of the interaction term FWS × mFES explained 7.6% additional variance in BWS. As hypothesized, analysis of the interaction revealed that people with lower falls efficacy (mFES ≤ 6.6) had a significantly positive relationship between their preferred FWS and BWS, whereas people with higher falls efficacy (mFES > 6.6) had no relationship between their walking speed in the 2 directions. FWS is positively related to BWS poststroke, but this relationship is influenced by one's perceived falls efficacy. Our results suggest that BWS can be predicted from FWS in people with lower falls efficacy, but as falls efficacy increases, BWS becomes a separate and unassociated construct from FWS. This study provides unique evidence that the degree of falls efficacy significantly influences the relationship between FWS and BWS poststroke. Physical therapists should examine both FWS and BWS in people with higher falls efficacy, but further investigation is warranted for those with lower falls efficacy.
| S-EPMC8152901 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Locomotor adaptation is commonly studied using split-belt treadmill walking, in which each foot is placed on a belt moving at a different speed. As subjects adapt to split-belt walking, they reduce metabolic power, but the biomechanical mechanism behind this improved efficiency is unknown. Analyzing mechanical work performed by the legs and joints during split-belt adaptation could reveal this mechanism. Because ankle work in the step-to-step transition is more efficient than hip work, we hypothesized that control subjects would reduce hip work on the fast belt and increase ankle work during the step-to-step transition as they adapted. We further hypothesized that subjects with unilateral, trans-tibial amputation would instead increase propulsive work from their intact leg on the slow belt. Control subjects reduced hip work and shifted more ankle work to the step-to-step transition, supporting our hypothesis. Contrary to our second hypothesis, intact leg work, ankle work and hip work in amputees were unchanged during adaptation. Furthermore, all subjects increased collisional energy loss on the fast belt, but did not increase propulsive work. This was possible because subjects moved further backward during fast leg single support in late adaptation than in early adaptation, compensating by reducing backward movement in slow leg single support. In summary, subjects used two strategies to improve mechanical efficiency in split-belt walking adaptation: a CoM displacement strategy that allows for less forward propulsion on the fast belt; and, an ankle timing strategy that allows efficient ankle work in the step-to-step transition to increase while reducing inefficient hip work.
| S-EPMC5340589 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Kinesin-1 is an ATP-driven, two-headed motor protein that transports intracellular cargoes (loads) along microtubules. The movement of kinesin-1 has generally been modeled according to its correlation with ATP cleavage (forward movement), synthesis (backward movement), or unproductive cleavage (futile consumption). Based on recent experimental observations, we formulate a mechanochemical model for this movement in which the forward/backward/futile cycle can be realized through multiple biochemical pathways. Our results show that the backward motion of kinesin-1 occurs mainly through backward sliding along the microtubule and is usually also coupled with ATP hydrolysis. We also found that with a low external load, about 80% of ATP is wasted (futile consumption) by kinesin-1. Furthermore, at high ATP concentrations or under high external loads, both heads of kinesin-1 are always in the ATP- or ADP ⋅ Pi-binding state and tightly bound to the microtubule, while at low ATP concentrations and low loads, kinesin-1 is mainly in the one-head-bound state. Unless the external load is near the stall force, the motion of kinesin-1 is almost deterministic.
| S-EPMC9117889 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Locomotor adaptation is crucial for daily gait adjustments to changing environmental demands and obstacle avoidance. Mobile brain imaging with high-density electroencephalography (EEG) now permits quantification of electrocortical dynamics during human locomotion. To determine the brain areas involved in human locomotor adaptation, we recorded high-density EEG from healthy, young adults during split-belt treadmill walking. We incorporated a dual-electrode EEG system and neck electromyography to decrease motion and muscle artefacts. Voluntary movement preparation and execution have been linked to alpha (8-13 Hz) and beta band (13-30 Hz) desynchronizations in the sensorimotor and posterior parietal cortices, whereas theta band (4-7 Hz) modulations in the anterior cingulate have been correlated with movement error monitoring. We hypothesized that relative to normal walking, split-belt walking would elicit: (1) decreases in alpha and beta band power in sensorimotor and posterior parietal cortices, reflecting enhanced motor flexibility; and (2) increases in theta band power in anterior cingulate cortex, reflecting instability and balance errors that will diminish with practice. We found electrocortical activity in multiple regions that was associated with stages of gait adaptation. Data indicated that sensorimotor and posterior parietal cortices had decreased alpha and beta band spectral power during early adaptation to split-belt treadmill walking that gradually returned to pre-adaptation levels by the end of the adaptation period. Our findings emphasize that multiple brain areas are involved in adjusting gait under changing environmental demands during human walking. Future studies could use these findings on healthy, young participants to identify dysfunctional supraspinal mechanisms that may be impairing gait adaptation. KEY POINTS: Identifying the location and time course of electrical changes in the brain correlating with gait adaptation increases our understanding of brain function and provides targets for brain stimulation interventions. Using high-density EEG in combination with 3D biomechanics, we found changes in neural oscillations localized near the sensorimotor, posterior parietal and cingulate cortices during split-belt treadmill adaptation. These findings suggest that multiple cortical mechanisms may be associated with locomotor adaptation, and their temporal dynamics can be quantified using mobile EEG. Results from this study can serve as a reference model to examine brain dynamics in individuals with movement disorders that cause gait asymmetry and reduced gait adaptation.
| S-EPMC10528133 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The 2015 Gunther Laukien Prize recognized solution NMR studies of protein dynamics and thermodynamics. This Perspective surveys aspects of the development and application of NMR spin relaxation for investigations of protein flexibility and function over multiple time scales in solution. Methods highlighted include analysis of overall rotational diffusion, theoretical descriptions of R1? relaxation, and molecular dynamics simulations to interpret NMR spin relaxation. Applications are illustrated for the zinc-finger domain Xfin-31, the calcium-binding proteins calbindin D9k and calmodulin, and the bZip transcription factor of GCN4.
| S-EPMC4856014 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundHemodynamics in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) while walking forward and backward, with and without an additional cognitive task (motor single-task [ST] and motor cognitive dual-task [DT]) have not been studied in people with multiple sclerosis (pwMS).AimTo investigate the PFC hemodynamics during forward and as well as backward walking, with and without a cognitive task, in pwMS and healthy controls.DesignObservational case-control study.SettingSheba Multiple Sclerosis Center, Tel-Hashomer, Israel.PopulationEighteen pwMS (36.1±11.7 years, 66.6% female) and 17 healthy controls (37.5±13.8 years, 76.5% female).MethodsEach subject completed four walking trials: ST forward walking, DT forward walking, ST backward walking, DT backward walking. PFC activity for all trials was recorded using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). The PFC was subdivided in the frontal eye field (FEF), frontopolar cortex (FPC) and the dorsolateral PFC (DLPFC).ResultsThe relative oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO) concentration was higher during the DT forward walking in all PFC subareas compared with the ST forward walking for both groups. The relative HbO concentration was higher during ST backward walking compared with ST forward walking in pwMS (DLPFC, FEF) and the healthy controls (FEF, FPC), specifically during the initial part of the trial.ConclusionsST backward walking and DT forward walking impact the hemodynamics at the PFC, although, the difference between pwMS and healthy adults requires further clarification. Future RCT's are encouraged to examine the impact of an intervention program based on DT forward and backward walking on PFC activity in pwMS.Clinical rehabilitation impactBackward walking increases activity in the PFC region in pwMS. Similarly, when performing a cognitive task while walking forward.
| S-EPMC10171363 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Moving about in the world during daily life requires executing and successfully shifting between a variety of functional tasks, such as rising from a chair or bed, walking, turning, and navigating stairs. Moreover, moving about during daily life requires not only navigating between different functional tasks, but also performing these tasks in the presence of mental distractions. However, little is known about underlying neuromuscular control for executing and shifting between these different tasks. In this study, we investigated muscle coordination across walking, turning, and chair transfers by applying motor module (a.k.a. muscle synergy) analysis to the Timed-Up-and-Go (TUG) test with and without a secondary cognitive dual task. We found that healthy young adults recruit a small set of common motor modules across the subtasks of the TUG test and that their composition is robust to cognitive distraction. Instead, cognitive distraction impacted motor module activation timings such that they became more consistent. This work is the first to demonstrate motor module generalization across multiple tasks that are both functionally different and crucial for healthy mobility. Overall, our results suggest that the central nervous system may draw from a "library" of modular control strategies to navigate the variety of movements and cognitive demands required of daily life.
| S-EPMC8461213 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Prediction errors have a prominent role in many forms of learning. For example, in reinforcement learning, agents learn by updating the association between states and outcomes as a function of the prediction error elicited by the event. One paradigm often used to study error-driven learning is blocking. In forward blocking, participants are first presented with stimulus A, followed by outcome X (A→X). In the second phase, A and B are presented together, followed by X (AB→X). Here, A→X blocks the formation of B→X, given that X is already fully predicted by A. In backward blocking, the order of phases is reversed. Here, the association between B and X that is formed during the first learning phase of AB→X is weakened when participants learn exclusively A→X in the second phase. The present study asked the question whether forward and backward blocking occur during visual statistical learning, i.e., the incidental learning of the statistical structure of the environment. In a series of studies, using both forward and backward blocking, we observed statistical learning of temporal associations among pairs of images. While we found no forward blocking, we observed backward blocking, thereby suggesting a retrospective revaluation process in statistical learning and supporting a functional similarity between statistical learning and reinforcement learning.
| S-EPMC11299817 | biostudies-literature