Human walking is a standardized, repeatable and rhythmic locomotor act, with biomechanical patterns reported as roughly common to all healthy individuals. However, some gait patterns could be affected by cognitive, social and cultural factors. This mini-review aims at investigating top-down related differences in walking healthy patterns due to the above factors. The reviewed literature reported that socio-economic factors are at the basis of differences in pedestrian walking speed, related to the pace of life: faster speed was found in industrialized countries than in developing ones. Furthermore, it was suggested that the ancient division between men and women in hunters and gatherers, respectively, could be at the basis of gender visual differences and, in turn, in upper body movements during walking, with women walking with a more stable head. Interestingly, changes in gait speed did not affect cortical resources needed for spatial cognition, whereas a cognitive task may affect the gait speed. The most reliable parameters, poorly affected by psycho-social factors, resulted the symmetry of limb movements and the ratio between stance and swing duration. The latter was found close to the irrational number called golden ratio, providing a fractal structure to human gait cycle. Both these parameters are at the basis of the harmony of human walking, a feature maintained also in presence of top-down driven gait modifications.


    Zugriff

    Download


    Exportieren, teilen und zitieren



    Titel :

    The Walking Brain: factors influencing human gait



    Erscheinungsdatum :

    2018-01-01


    Anmerkungen:

    doi:10.13140/rg.2.2.22453.93927



    Medientyp :

    Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)


    Format :

    Elektronische Ressource


    Sprache :

    Englisch



    Klassifikation :

    DDC:    629



    Factors Influencing Walking in Small Urban Region

    Bricka, Stacey / Sener, Ipek N. / Dusza, Casey et al. | Transportation Research Record | 2012


    Factors Influencing Walking in Small Urban Region

    Bricka, Stacey | Online Contents | 2012


    Stable Dynamic Walking Gait Humanoid

    Daut, Mohamad Noraffandi / Azyze, Nur Latif / Sanhoury, Ibrahim M. H. et al. | Springer Verlag | 2013


    Stable Dynamic Walking Gait Humanoid

    Daut, M.N. / Azyze, N.L. / Sanhoury, I.M.H. et al. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2013


    Biped Walking Robot Gait Planning Research

    Chen, Hai Long ;Wu, Xiao ;Du, Jun | Trans Tech Publications | 2013