The relationship between locomotor learning and arm swing during treadmill gait

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between locomotor learning in response to mass perturbations and arm swinging during treadmill gait.

Ten healthy young adults (170.1 ± 6.9 cm, 65 ± 5.1 kg) participated in this study. The subjects were asked to walk on a treadmill without arm swing (bound condition) and with normal arm swing (normal condition) on two different days, approximately one week apart. The experimental paradigm consisted of a baseline treadmill gait for 5 min (baseline), a treadmill gait with a mass (4 kg) attached around the non-dominant lower leg for 10 min (adaptation), and a treadmill gait without a mass for 5 minutes (post-adaptation). In the bound condition, both upper arms were bound to the trunk using a belt. The spatiotemporal gait parameters were measured by an 8-camera Vicon motion system. Symmetries of the gait spatiotemporal parameters were calculated for step length, step time, single-leg stance time, double-leg stance time, and stride length using the following equation: (dominant leg – non-dominant leg) / (dominant leg + non-dominant leg). We calculated the symmetry of the gait parameters across the following five periods: late baseline (LB), early adaptation (EA), late adaptation (LA), early postadaptation (EP), and late postadaptation (LP), by averaging the ten strides of the periods. The symmetries of the gait parameters were compared using a two-way analysis of variance (and post hoc comparisons) with condition (bound and normal) and period (LB, EA, LA, EP, and LP) as within-subject factors.

There was a significant interaction effect on the symmetry of the step time. Post hoc comparisons showed that the step-time symmetry during EP was larger than during the LA period only in the bound condition (normal condition LB: -0.01 ± 0.02, EA: -0.04 ± 0.02, LA: -0.00 ± 0.04, EP:0.01 ± 0.01, and LP: 0.01 ± 0.01; bound condition LB: -0.01 ± 0.02, EA: -0.04 ± 0.02, LA: -0.03 ± 0.03, EP: 0.03 ± 0.02, and LP: 0.01 ± 0.02). Period had a significant main effect on step time, single-leg and double-leg stance time, and stride length symmetries.

Locomotor learning in response to mass perturbations and arm swinging during treadmill gait are related.

One of the roles of arm swing may be to promote gait learning.