Detection of co-regulation of local structure and magnitude of stride time variability using a new local detrended fluctuation analysis

- A new local detrended fluctuation analysis (DFAloc) was introduced.
- DFAloc identified the regulation of the local structure of stride time variation.
- Regulation of the local structure was related to the regulation of the magnitude.
- The stride time regulation was generated by phase couplings.
- The regulation changed with speed, age and cadence constraints.

Detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) is a popular method to numerically define the persistent structure of stride time variability. The conventional DFA assumes that the persistent structure in stride time variability is consistent in time and can be numerically defined by a single DFA scaling exponent. However, stride time regulation has to be adaptive to both environmental and internal perturbations and consequently, the persistent structure of stride time variability will have to be modulated in time. The present article introduces a new local detrended fluctuation analysis (DFAloc) that is able to detect modulation in the structure of stride time variability generated by phase-couplings between temporal scales. DFAloc was used in a reanalysis of the data set of stride time variability of Hausdorff et al. and a data set available at www.physionet.org. The results showed that there were significant phase couplings between temporal scales that generate an inverse correlation (r = −0.54 to −0.83) between the local structure and local magnitude of the stride time variability. Furthermore, the modulation of the local structure was significantly influenced by gait speed, external pace making, and age (all p's < 0.05). These results suggest several specific modifications of contemporary theories that have been suggested for the persistent structure of stride time variability found by the conventional DFA.