Rigid soles improve balance in beam walking, but improvements do not persist with bare feet
Rigid soles improve balance in beam walking, but improvements do not persist with bare feet
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DOI：
10.1038/s41598-020-64035-y
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发表时间：
2020-05-06
影响因子：
4.6
通讯作者：
Sternad, Dagmar
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Huber, Meghan E.;Chiovetto, Enrico;Sternad, Dagmar
在狭窄的横梁上行走时保持平衡是一项具有挑战性的运动任务。一个重要因素是脚在支撑面上施加扭矩的能力受到梁宽度的限制。尽管如此，脚仍然是身体与外部环境之间的关键界面，目前尚不清楚脚的机械特性如何影响平衡。这项研究研究了在横梁上行走时，用刚性鞋底约束足关节的运动如何影响平衡性能。我们记录了不同技能水平的受试者在狭窄的横梁上行走时的全身运动学，他们的脚上是否穿着平坦、坚硬的鞋底。我们计算了两种条件下全身运动和角动量的变化。结果表明，使用刚性鞋底行走可以改善专家和新手受试者的平衡性能，但使用刚性鞋底平衡性能的改善不会影响或转移到后续赤脚的任务性能。没有任何后遗症表明，通过刚性鞋底约束足关节而改善的平衡性能是机械效应的结果，而不是神经控制变化的结果。虽然穿硬质鞋底可以帮助保持平衡，但对于平衡能力的训练或康复似乎效果有限。
Maintaining balance while walking on a narrow beam is a challenging motor task. One important factor is that the foot's ability to exert torque on the support surface is limited by the beam width. Still, the feet serve as a critical interface between the body and the external environment, and it is unclear how the mechanical properties of the feet affect balance. This study examined how constraining the motion of the foot joints with rigid soles influenced balance performance when walking on a beam. We recorded whole-body kinematics of subjects with varying skill levels as they walked on a narrow beam with and without wearing flat, rigid soles on their feet. We computed changes in whole-body motion and angular momentum across the two conditions. Results showed that walking with rigid soles improved balance performance in both expert and novice subjects, but that improvements in balance performance with rigid soles did not affect or transfer to subsequent task performance with bare feet. The absence of any aftereffects suggested that the improved balance performance resulting from constraining the foot joints by a rigid sole was the result of a mechanical effect rather than a change in neural control. Although wearing rigid soles can be used to assist balance, there appears to be limited benefit for training or rehabilitation of balance ability.