Adapting spatiotemporal gait symmetry to functional electrical stimulation during treadmill walking.

Individuals with neurological impairments often exhibit asymmetrical gait patterns. This study explored the potential of using functional electrical stimulation (FES) as a perturbation method during treadmill walking to promote gait symmetry adaptation by investigating whether the FES perturbation could induce gait adaptation concerning spatial and temporal gait symmetry in healthy subjects. In the FES perturbation, both legs received electrical pulses at the same period as the subjects' initial stride duration, and the temporal gap between the two pulses for each leg was manipulated over a 7-min period.