Gait Velocity Alterations in Essential Tremor: a Meta-Analysis.

Essential tremor (ET) is a prevalent movement disorder that impairs gait function, including gait speed - a critical marker of mobility disability and adverse outcomes. This meta-analysis aimed to quantify differences in gait speed between individuals diagnosed with ET compared to people without a movement disorder diagnosis. Electronic databases were searched for studies comparing gait speed in ET patients and controls.

Osteoarthritis and Neurological Disorder Diagnoses in Adults: A Meta-Analysis Examining Associations With Parkinson's Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, and Alzheimer's Disease.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a highly prevalent joint disorder that is emerging as a global threat to health. OA is associated with low-grade chronic systemic inflammation that can affect overall health, leading to a sedentary lifestyle and potentially increased risk of neurological disorders (ND) such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), and multiple sclerosis (MS). A meta-analysis was conducted following the Preferred Reporting Items for 2020 Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines.

Exploring age-related differences in the relationship between spatial and temporal contributions to step length asymmetry during split-belt adaptation.

Gait adaptability is crucial for meeting environmental demands, and impaired gait adaptation increases fall risk, particularly in older adults. While prior research exists on older adults' gait adaptation, particularly in perturbation studies, the specific contributions of temporal and spatial adaptation strategies to step length asymmetry (SLA) during split-belt treadmill walking require further examination. This study fills this gap by evaluating how distinct adaptation strategies contribute to SLA in healthy young and older adults.

The dual timescales of gait adaptation: initial stability adjustments followed by subsequent energetic cost adjustments.

Gait adaptation during bipedal walking allows people to adjust their walking patterns to maintain balance, avoid obstacles and avoid injury. Adaptation involves complex processes that function to maintain stability and reduce energy expenditure. However, the processes that influence walking patterns during different points in the adaptation period remain to be investigated.

Virtual Assessment of Functional Mobility in Lower Extremity Prosthesis Clients: An Exploratory Study.

Objective: To investigate the relationship between patient perception of lower extremity function and a home-based virtual clinician assessment of mobility in lower limb prosthesis clients.

Design: Descriptive observational study using a clinician-administered functional mobility survey and timed Up and Go test to assess lower extremity function under supervision.

Setting: Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act-compliant online virtual platform.

Functional lower extremity strength influences stepping strategy in community-dwelling older adults during single and dual-task walking.

As age increases, a decline in lower extremity strength leads to reduced mobility and increased fall risks. This decline outpaces the age-related reduction in muscle mass, resulting in mobility limitations. Older adults with varying degrees of mobility-disability use different stepping strategies.

Evaluating Postural Transition Movement Performance in Individuals with Essential Tremor via the Instrumented Timed Up and Go.

Flexibility in performing various movements like standing, walking, and turning is crucial for navigating dynamic environments in daily life. Individuals with essential tremor often experience movement difficulties that can affect these postural transitions, limiting mobility and independence. Yet, little research has examined the performance of postural transitions in people with essential tremor.

Functional Lower Extremity Strength Influences Stepping Strategy in Community-Dwelling Older Adults During Single and Dual-Task Walking.

As age increases, a decline in lower extremity strength leads to reduced mobility and increased fall risks. This decline outpaces the age-related reduction in muscle mass, resulting in mobility limitations. Older adults with varying degrees of mobility-disability use different stepping strategies.

Incline and decline running alters joint moment contributions but not peak support moments in individuals with an anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction and controls.

Individuals with an anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) commonly exhibit altered gait patterns, potentially contributing to an increased risk of osteoarthritis (OA). Joint moment contributions (JMCs) and support moments during incline and decline running are unknown in healthy young adults and individuals with an ACLR. Understanding these conditional joint-level changes could explain the increased incidence of OA that develops in the long term.

Habitual exercise evokes fast and persistent adaptation during split-belt walking.

Changing movement patterns in response to environmental perturbations is a critical aspect of gait and is related to reducing the energetic cost of the movement. Exercise improves energetic capacity for submaximal exercise and may affect how people adapt movement to reach an energetic minimum. The purpose of this study was to determine whether self-reported exercise behavior influences gait adaptation in young adults.

The relationship between gait speed and mediolateral stability depends on a person's preferred speed.

Mediolateral stability during walking requires active control and is complex. Step width, a proxy for stability, follows a curvilinear relationship as gait speeds increase. However, despite the complexity of maintenance for stability, no study has yet investigated the variation across individuals of the relationship between speed and step width.

Fall history in older adults impacts acceleration profiles after a near collision with a moving pedestrian hazard.

Background: Environmental hazards (e.g., pedestrian traffic) cause falls and testing environment impacts gait in older adults.

Cognitive Demands Influence Drop Jump Performance and Relationships With Leg Stiffness in Healthy Young Adults.

Holmes, HH, Downs Talmage, JL, Neely, KA, and Roper, JA. Cognitive demands influence drop jump performance and relationships with leg stiffness in healthy young adults. J Strength Cond Res 37(1): 74-83, 2023-Sports-relevant cognition influences neuromuscular control and sports performance.

Physical activity does not impact mediolateral margin of stability across a range of postural-perturbing conditions in young adults.

Background: The maintenance of stability during walking is critical for successful locomotion. While targeted balance training can improve stability, it is unclear how simply meeting recommended physical activity guidelines may impact dynamic stability in healthy young adults.

Research Question: Examining the differences in the mediolateral margin of stability (ML-MOS) and the variability of the ML-MOS in physically active and inactive young adults across a range of stability-challenging walking tasks METHOD: Twenty-one physically active and twenty inactive young adults completed four experimental walking conditions: (1) Overground Walking, (2) Tandem Walking, (3) Beam Walking, and (4) Stepping-Stones.

Cognitive dual-task alters Local Dynamic Stability of lower extremity during common movements.

A dual-task paradigm is most commonly used in the field of biomechanics to understand the effect of multi-tasking or cognitive load on motor performance. The Local Dynamic Stability (LDS) is most commonly used to quantify motor performance, but there are still several unknown effects of this metric with varied task conditions and cognitive demands. Therefore, this study used motion capture to collect biomechanical data from 28 healthy collegiate participants during a walk and jog task both with and without a semantic fluency task to investigate the effects of task speed, limb dominance, and semantic fluency on LDS.

Changes to margins of stability from walking to obstacle crossing in older adults while walking fast and with a dual-task.

It is not well understood how older adults meet the combined locomotor demands of obstacle avoidance at fast speeds as compared to obstacle avoidance under cognitive loads. The purpose of this study was to quantify changes in locomotor stability (margin of stability, MOS) from walking to crossing obstacles at fast speeds versus with added cognitive demands in older adults. Community-dwelling older adults walked on an unobstructed and obstructed path at their preferred speed (preferred); during a dualtask (verbal fluency); and at their 'fastest comfortable' speed (fast).

Incremental Visual Occlusion During Split-Belt Treadmill Walking Has No Gradient Effect on Adaptation or Retention.

Split-belt treadmills have become an increasingly popular means of quantifying ambulation adaptability. Multiple sensory feedback mechanisms, including vision, contribute to task execution and adaptation success. No studies have yet explored visual feedback effects on locomotor adaptability across a spectrum of available visual information.

Core and Whole-Body Vibration Exercise Improve Military Foot March Performance in Novice Trainees: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Introduction: The purpose of the present study was to investigate core exercise training and whole-body vibration (WBV) as a training method to improve performance and recovery from an 8-km military foot march in novice trainees.

Materials And Methods: A 3 × 5 repeated measures randomized control trial was used to evaluate the effects of core exercise training and WBV on performance and recovery from an 8-km foot march. Thirty-nine participants were randomized into three groups: core exercise (Ex), WBV with core exercise (WBVEx), and control.

Faster or longer steps: Maintaining fast walking in older adults at risk for mobility disability.

Background: The ability to walk at various speeds is essential to independence for older adults. Maintaining fast walking requires changes in spatial-temporal measures, increasing step length and/or decreasing step time. It is unknown how mobility affects the parameters that change between preferred and fast walking.