Trunk variability and local dynamic stability during gait after generalized fatigue induced by incremental exercise test in young women in different phases of the menstrual cycle.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify how generalized fatigue along with hormonal changes throughout the menstrual cycle affects trunk variability and local dynamic stability during gait.

Methods: General fatigue was induced by an incremental test on a treadmill, and the menstrual cycle was divided into three phases: follicular, ovulatory, and luteal. Twenty-six healthy, young volunteers (aged 18 to 28 years) who did not use oral contraceptives or other hormonal drugs with a regular menstrual cycle participated in the study.

Vertical stiffness and lower limb inter-joint coordination in older versus younger runners.

Older runners (OR) are increasing their participation in races. Aging may impact the adopted running pattern. Hence, the analysis of stiffness and the inter-joint lower limb coordination in the sagittal plane could contribute to investigating this impact.

Identification and Characterization of Short-Term Motor Patterns in Rest Tremor of Individuals with Parkinson's Disease.

(1) Background: The dynamics of hand tremors involve nonrandom and short-term motor patterns (STMPs). This study aimed to (i) identify STMPs in Parkinson’s disease (PD) and physiological resting tremor and (ii) characterize STMPs by amplitude, persistence, and regularity. (2) Methods: This study included healthy (N = 12, 60.

Wrist Rigidity Evaluation in Parkinson's Disease: A Scoping Review.

(1) Background: One of the main cardinal signs of Parkinson's disease (PD) is rigidity, whose assessment is important for monitoring the patient's recovery. The wrist is one of the joints most affected by this symptom, which has a great impact on activities of daily living and consequently on quality of life. The assessment of rigidity is traditionally made by clinical scales, which have limitations due to their subjectivity and low intra- and inter-examiner reliability.

Multidimensional Assessment of Individuals with Parkinson's Disease: Development and Structure Validation of a Self-Assessment Questionnaire.

(1) Background: Several instruments are used to assess individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD). However, most instruments necessitate the physical presence of a clinician for evaluation, were not designed for PD, nor validated for remote application. (2) Objectives: To develop and validate a self-assessment questionnaire that can be used remotely, and to assess the respondents' health condition.

Single channel approach for filtering electroencephalographic signals strongly contaminated with facial electromyography.

Eliminating facial electromyographic (EMG) signal from the electroencephalogram (EEG) is crucial for the accuracy of applications such as brain computer interfaces (BCIs) and brain functionality measurement. Facial electromyography typically corrupts the electroencephalogram. Although it is possible to find in the literature a number of multi-channel approaches for filtering corrupted EEG, studies employing single-channel approaches are scarce.

Lower limb inter-joint coordination patterns are associated with walking experience in toddlers according to limb and stance periods.

Walking experience is crucial for inter-joint coordination during gait acquisition. Toddlers show asymmetrical lower limb function during early locomotion for transferring body weight (regulatory limb) and steering the direction of walking (impulse limb). This study aimed to investigate the association between coordination patterns and walking experience, and between coordination variability and walking experience according to healthy toddlers' lower limb function and stance periods.

Effects of Foot-Core Training on Foot-Ankle Kinematics and Running Kinetics in Runners: Secondary Outcomes From a Randomized Controlled Trial.

This study investigated the effectiveness of an 8-week foot-core exercise training program on foot-ankle kinematics during running and also on running kinetics (impact loads), with particular interest in biomechanical outcomes considered risk factors for running-related injuries in recreational runners. A single-blind, randomized, controlled trial was conducted with 87 recreational runners randomly allocated to either the control (CG) or intervention (IG) group and assessed at baseline and after 8 weeks. The IG underwent foot-core training 3 times/week, while the CG followed a placebo lower-limb stretching protocol.

Prevalence of distinct types of hardware failures related to deep brain stimulation.

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an effective treatment of several types of neurological conditions, including Parkinson's disease, essential tremor, dystonia, and epilepsy. Despite technological progress in the past 10 years, the number of studies reporting side effects of DBS has increased, mainly due to hardware failures. This review investigated studies published between 2017 and 2021 to identify the prevalence of distinct types of hardware failures related to DBS.

Discrimination capability of linear and nonlinear gait features in group classification.

The variability of human movement can be defined as normal variations occurring in motor activity and quantified using linear statistics or nonlinear methods. In the human movement field, linear and nonlinear measures of variability have been used to discriminate groups and conditions in different contexts. Indeed, some authors support the idea that these gait features provide complementary information about movement.

Effects of additional load at different heights on gait initiation: A statistical parametric mapping of center of pressure and center of mass behavior.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of different vertical positions of an asymmetrical load on the anticipatory postural adjustments phase of gait initiation. Sixty-eight college students (32 males, 36 females; age: 23.65 ± 3.

Discrimination between healthy and patients with Parkinson's disease from hand resting activity using inertial measurement unit.

Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurological disease that affects the motor system. The associated motor symptoms are muscle rigidity or stiffness, bradykinesia, tremors, and gait disturbances. The correct diagnosis, especially in the initial stages, is fundamental to the life quality of the individual with PD.

Margins of stability of persons with transtibial or transfemoral amputations walking on sloped surfaces.

Gait is a complex motor skill. However, most falls in humans occur during gait, and people with lower limb amputation have an increased risk of falls. Thus, this study evaluated the stability of persons with unilateral amputation by quantifying the margin of stability (MoS) during gait, to contribute to understanding the strategies adopted by these people to reduce falls.

Open-source data management system for Parkinson's disease follow-up.

Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative condition of the central nervous system that causes motor and non-motor dysfunctions. The disease affects 1% of the world population over 60 years and remains cureless. Knowledge and monitoring of PD are essential to provide better living conditions for patients.

On the use of histograms of oriented gradients for tremor detection from sinusoidal and spiral handwritten drawings of people with Parkinson's disease.

Parkinson's disease (PD), whose cardinal signs are tremor, rigidity, bradykinesia, and postural instability, gradually reduces the quality of life of the patient, making early diagnosis and follow-up of the disorder essential. This study aims to contribute to the objective evaluation of tremor in PD by introducing and assessing histograms of oriented gradients (HOG) to the analysis of handwriting sinusoidal and spiral patterns. These patterns were digitized and collected from handwritten drawings of people with PD (n = 20) and control healthy individuals (n = 20).

The effects of general fatigue induced by incremental exercise test and active recovery modes on energy cost, gait variability and stability in male soccer players.

The aerobic endurance is considered an important physiological capacity of soccer players which is examined by Incremental Exercise Test (IET). However, it is not clear how general fatigue induced by IET influences physiological and biomechanical gait features in soccer players and how players recover optimally at post-IET. Here, the effect of general fatigue induced by IET on energy cost, gait variability and stability in soccer players was investigated.

Effects of triceps surae fatigue and weight training level on gait variability and local stability in young adults.

Muscle fatigue negatively affects gait, and the changes in gait pattern due to muscle fatigue is influenced by which muscles are fatigued and pre-existing physical activity levels. However, how these factors alter gait stability and variability, measures related to risk of fall, remains unclear. To explore how muscular fatigue affects linear and nonlinear gait features in young adults, the effects of triceps surae fatigue and weight training level on gait variability and local stability, as well as a 12-min recovery time of post-fatigue period, were evaluated in young adults (trained and untrained groups).

Head orientation and gait stability in young adults, dancers and older adults.

Background: Control of body orientation requires head motion detection by the vestibular system and small changes with respect to the gravitational acceleration vector could cause destabilization.

Research Question: We aimed to compare the effects of different head orientations on gait stability in young adults, dancers and older adults.

Methods: Three groups of 10 subjects were evaluated, the first composed of young adults (aged 18-30 years), the second composed of young healthy dancers under high performance dance training (aged 18-30 years), and the third group composed of community-dwelling older adults (aged 65-80 years).

A comparison of coordination and its variability in lower extremity segments during treadmill and overground running at different speeds.

Background: Recently, the use of treadmills for walking and running has increased due to lifestyle changes. However, biomechanical differences in coordination between running on a treadmill or overground have not been adequately addressed.

Research Question: The purpose of this study was to compare coordination and its variability in lower limb segments during treadmill and overground running at different speeds.

Identification of arthropathy and myopathy of the temporomandibular syndrome by biomechanical facial features.

Background: Temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) are pathological conditions affecting the temporomandibular joint and/or masticatory muscles. The current diagnosis of TMDs is complex and multi-factorial, including questionnaires, medical testing and the use of diagnostic methods, such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging. The evaluation, like the mandibular range of motion, needs the experience of the professional in the field and as such, there is a probability of human error when diagnosing TMD.

On the Use of Non-Contact Capacitive Sensors for the Assessment of Postural Hand Tremor of Individuals with Parkinson's Disease.

Parkinsonian tremor manifests in different types: rest, postural, and action tremors. The postural tremor occurs while a body part is held straight out from the body in a stable position against gravity. The Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), which is a subjective assessment performed by the qualitative judgment of neurologists, is the clinical standard for parkinsonian tremor assessment.

Pelvic floor pressure distribution profile in urinary incontinence: a classification study with feature selection.

Background: Pelvic floor pressure distribution profiles, obtained by a novel instrumented non-deformable probe, were used as the input to a feature extraction, selection, and classification approach to test their potential for an automatic diagnostic system for objective female urinary incontinence assessment. We tested the performance of different feature selection approaches and different classifiers, as well as sought to establish the group of features that provides the greatest discrimination capability between continent and incontinent women.

Methods: The available data for evaluation consisted of intravaginal spatiotemporal pressure profiles acquired from 24 continent and 24 incontinent women while performing four pelvic floor maneuvers: the maximum contraction maneuver, Valsalva maneuver, endurance maneuver, and wave maneuver.

Effects of inclined surfaces on gait variability and stability in unilateral lower limb amputees.

This study aims to analyze gait variability and stability of individuals with amputation walking on upward (8%), horizontal (0%), and downward (- 8%) inclines, by using linear and nonlinear descriptors. Trunk linear variability and gait spatiotemporal parameters were evaluated. Nonlinear variability (local dynamic stability-LDS), was estimated by the maximum Lyapunov exponent (λ) computed from a trunk marker velocity.

Linear and nonlinear measures of gait variability after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction.

The objective of this study was to assess gait variability after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR), as an indicative of possible altered gait pattern and a measure of recovery compared to control subjects. Forty subjects (32 male), divided into 4 groups of 10 participants, were enrolled in the study: a control group (CG), and observational groups OG-I (90 days), OG-II (180 days), and OG-III (360 days) after ACLR. All subjects underwent the same rehabilitation program for six months.