Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
4973592 | Biomedical Signal Processing and Control | 2017 | 9 Pages |
Abstract
The study aimed to assess possible differences between healthy, young males and females in co-contraction activity of tibialis anterior and gastrocnemius lateralis during gait at self-selected speed and cadence. The Statistical-Gait-Analysis methodology, allowing a statistical characterization of gait by averaging spatial-temporal and sEMG-based parameters over hundreds of strides per walking trial, was applied on thirty age-matched subjects: 15 males and 15 females. Co-contractions were assessed as the overlapping periods between muscular activities. Results showed the occurrence of four different co-contractions during gait cycle, for both groups. No significant differences in activation instants (ON-OFF) were detected between groups. Otherwise, all the co-contractions occurred in higher number of strides (%) in females, respect to males: in early stance (40.7 ± 18.7% vs. 18.9 ± 11.0%, p < 0.001), mid-stance (41.5 ± 15.2% vs. 26.0 ± 22.8%, p < 0.005), pre-swing (16.6 ± 7.3% vs. 7.1 ± 4.7%, p < 0.001), and swing (79.4 ± 13.7% vs. 55.6 ± 19.3%, p < 0.001). This overall higher occurrence of ankle-muscle co-contractions, associated to a more complex muscular recruitment, seems to reflect a female need for a higher level of ankle-joint stabilization. Thus, present findings indicated gender as a not negligible factor in the interpretation of muscular co-contraction variability during walking and suggested the suitability of gender-based approaches in clinical studies and in developing reference frameworks.
Keywords
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Computer Science
Signal Processing
Authors
Alessandro Mengarelli, Elvira Maranesi, Laura Burattini, Sandro Fioretti, Francesco Di Nardo,