When human walking becomes random walking: fractal analysis and modeling of gait rhythm fluctuations

Jeffrey M. Hausdorff, Yosef Ashkenazy, Chang-K. Peng, Plamen Ch. Ivanov, H.Eugene Stanley and Ary L. Goldberger

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2001, vol. 302, issue 1, 138-147

Abstract: We present a random walk, fractal analysis of the stride-to-stride fluctuations in the human gait rhythm. The gait of healthy young adults is scale-free with long-range correlations extending over hundreds of strides. This fractal scaling changes characteristically with maturation in children and older adults and becomes almost completely uncorrelated with certain neurologic diseases. Stochastic modeling of the gait rhythm dynamics, based on transitions between different “neural centers”, reproduces distinctive statistical properties of the gait pattern. By tuning one model parameter, the hopping (transition) range, the model can describe alterations in gait dynamics from childhood to adulthood — including a decrease in the correlation and volatility exponents with maturation.

Keywords: Stochastic processes; Gait; Aging; Nonlinear dynamics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2001
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:302:y:2001:i:1:p:138-147

DOI: 10.1016/S0378-4371(01)00460-5

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