Title: Adaptive locomotor control in bipedal walking monkey
Abstract: Adaptation to the external demands allows us to walk bipedally in the various circumstances. During slanted walking, the control of center of gravity (COG) is crucial for the safe and smooth locomotion. In this study, we tested how the operant-trained bipedal (Bp) Japanese monkey could adapt its locomotor patterns to the changes in the treadmill grades. During uphill vs. level walking, the monkey exhibited: (1) a larger flexion of the hip, a lesser extension of knee and a larger ankle dorsiflexion at around touch-down of the foot, (2) a larger hip and knee extension at the lift-off, (3) a larger extent of forward body axis inclination. In contrast, during downhill vs. level walking, it exhibited: (1) a lesser flexion of the hip, a larger extension of the knee at the touch-down, (2) a lesser extension of the hip, a larger flexion of the knee at the lift-off, (3) a smaller extent of forward body axis inclination. Across all the grades tested, there were linear relationships between treadmill angle and the body axis angle, and between treadmill angle and stride length. These results imply that in order to appropriately transfer the COG forward-upward or forward-downward along the slanted treadmill surface, the monkey utilized both trunk and limb adaptation strategies. The strategies employed were quite similar to those in the human, suggesting that this Bp walking monkey could be a useful animal model that allows us to advance understanding of such adaptive control mechanisms in the human gait.
Publication Year: 2007
Publication Date: 2007-09-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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