Downloads: 1
Diff of
/jap/node2.html
[000000]
..
[7b91a9]
Switch to side-by-side view
--- a +++ b/jap/node2.html @@ -0,0 +1,63 @@ +<HTML> +<HEAD> +<TITLE>Introduction</TITLE> +<LINK REL=STYLESHEET HREF="gait-reprint.css"> +</HEAD> +<BODY LANG="EN" bgcolor="white"> + <A NAME="tex2html22" HREF="node3.html"><IMG WIDTH=37 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="next" SRC="/icons/latex2html/next_motif.png"></A> <A NAME="tex2html20" HREF="gait-reprint.html"><IMG WIDTH=26 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="up" SRC="/icons/latex2html/up_motif.png"></A> <A NAME="tex2html14" HREF="node1.html"><IMG WIDTH=63 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="previous" SRC="/icons/latex2html/previous_motif.png"></A> <BR> +<B> Next:</B> <A NAME="tex2html23" HREF="node3.html">Methods</A> +<B>Up:</B> <A NAME="tex2html21" HREF="gait-reprint.html">Title Page</A> +<B> Previous:</B> <A NAME="tex2html15" HREF="node1.html">Abstract</A> +<BR> <P> +<H1><A NAME="SECTION00020000000000000000">Introduction</A></H1> +<P> +When young children first begin to walk, immature control of posture +and gait results in large +stride-to-stride fluctuations and frequent falls (5,23). By +about three years of age, gait is relatively mature (26) and the +visually apparent unsteadiness has been replaced by a more stable walking +pattern. Nonetheless, +subtle changes in the development of neuromuscular control and +locomotor function continue well beyond age +three (2,19,23,25,26). +Some studies suggest a decrease in walking variability +after this age (21,24). However, a key unanswered question is +whether subtle changes in gait +unsteadiness and stride-to-stride dynamics also occur beyond this age. +<P> +Even in healthy, young adults, the gait cycle duration -- the stride +time -- fluctuates from one stride to the next in an apparently +random, noisy manner (11,16). However, in young adults with +intact neural control, the magnitude of these fluctuations is +relatively small. Although the stride-to-stride changes +appear to fluctuate randomly with no correlation between present and +future stride times, the healthy adult locomotor system actually +possesses ``memory'' such that the change from one stride to the next +displays a subtle, ``hidden'' temporal structure that has been +associated with long-range, fractal organization (11,12). In +contrast, in persons with neurological disease and in older persons, +especially those with a history of falls, stride-to-stride +variability increases and the temporal organization of stride time +dynamics is altered as well (3,4,7,8,10,14). +<P> +These studies suggest that analysis of the stride time dynamics may +also provide a window into the development of neuromuscular +control in children. Given the apparent parallels between the immature +gait of children and the unsteady gait of older persons and +persons with neurological impairment (23), +along with the subtle continued development of neural control beyond age three, we hypothesized +that +stride time dynamics will not be fully matured at this age. In the +present study, we tested this hypothesis by measuring +stride-to-stride fluctuations in the gait cycle duration of healthy +children 3 to 14 years of age. More specifically, we sought: i) to +characterize the development of mature stride dynamics, ii) to +determine at what ages changes in gait dynamics occur, and iii) +to compare the gait dynamics of children to those of adults. +<P> +<HR><A NAME="tex2html22" HREF="node3.html"><IMG WIDTH=37 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="next" SRC="/icons/latex2html/next_motif.png"></A> <A NAME="tex2html20" HREF="gait-reprint.html"><IMG WIDTH=26 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="up" SRC="/icons/latex2html/up_motif.png"></A> <A NAME="tex2html14" HREF="node1.html"><IMG WIDTH=63 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="previous" SRC="/icons/latex2html/previous_motif.png"></A> <BR> +<B> Next:</B> <A NAME="tex2html23" HREF="node3.html">Methods</A> +<B>Up:</B> <A NAME="tex2html21" HREF="gait-reprint.html">Title Page</A> +<B> Previous:</B> <A NAME="tex2html15" HREF="node1.html">Abstract</A> +</BODY> +</HTML>