In uncertain situations such as descending challenging slopes, social signals from caregivers can provide infants with important information for guiding action. Previous work showed that 18-month-old walking infants use social information selectively, only when risk of falling is uncertain. Experiment 1 was designed to alter infants' region of uncertainty for walking down slopes. Slippery Teflo...

As we walk, we must accurately place our feet to stabilize our motion and to navigate our environment. We must also achieve this accuracy despite imperfect sensory feedback and unexpected disturbances. In this study we tested whether the nervous system uses state estimation to beneficially combine sensory feedback with forward model predictions to compensate for these challenges. Specifically, ...

Biped walking is a complex task, but usually with a natural limit-cycle behavior when walking on an even ground. However, perturbations during walking can make the robot fall. Several works addressed the issue of measuring the robustness to disturbances, and most methods study the effect of a single perturbation. But when walking, the disturbances can be multiple, such as walking on rough terra...

[Purpose] To investigate the therapeutic usefulness of treadmill walking using a body weight support device (BWS), changes in circulatory dynamics and muscle activities with various levels of support were investigated. [Subjects and Methods] The subjects were divided into 3 groups: 20% BWS, 40% BWS, and full body weight (FBW). The subjects walked at maximum and normal speeds. Under each conditi...

Instrumented treadmills offer significant advantages for analysis of human locomotion, including recording consecutive steady-state gait cycles, precisely controlling walking speed, and avoiding force plate targeting. However, some studies of hemiparetic walking on a treadmill have suggested that the moving treadmill belt may fundamentally alter propulsion mechanics. Any differences in propulsi...

The human ankle varies impedance and delivers net positive work during the stance period of walking. In contrast, commercially available ankle-foot prostheses are passive during stance, causing many clinical problems for transtibial amputees, including non-symmetric gait patterns, higher gait metabolism, and poorer shock absorption. In this investigation, we develop and evaluate a myoelectric-d...

[Purpose] The aim of this study was to determine the threshold for classifying walking independence in stroke patients with and without cognitive disorders. [Subjects] The subjects were 130 patients with initial stroke hemiplegia. [Methods] The following factors were analyzed for associations with walking independence: Brunnstrom stage, one-leg standing time on the paralytic side, one-leg stand...