Shoes and Insoles: The Influence on Motor Tasks Related to Walking Gait Variability and Stability

Luca Russo, Roberto Di Capua, Benedetto Arnone, Marta Borrelli, Roberto Coppola, Fabio Esposito and Johnny Padulo
Additional contact information
Luca Russo: Department of Biotechnological and Applied Clinical Sciences, University of L’Aquila, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy
Roberto Di Capua: Department of Physics “E. Pancini”, University of Naples “Federico II”, and CNR-SPIN Institute, 80126 Naples, Italy
Benedetto Arnone: Department of Biotechnological and Applied Clinical Sciences, University of L’Aquila, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy
Marta Borrelli: Department of Biomedical Sciences for Health, Università degli Studi di Milano, 20133 Milan, Italy
Roberto Coppola: Faculty of Human and Society Sciences-University of Enna “Kore”, 94100 Enna, Italy
Fabio Esposito: Department of Biomedical Sciences for Health, Università degli Studi di Milano, 20133 Milan, Italy
Johnny Padulo: Department of Biomedical Sciences for Health, Università degli Studi di Milano, 20133 Milan, Italy

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 12, 1-12

Abstract: The rhythmic control of the lower limb muscles influences the cycle-to-cycle variability during a walking task. The benefits of insoles, commonly used to improve the walking gait, have been little studied. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the walking gait variability and stability on different walking conditions (without shoes, WTS, with shoes, WS, with shoes and insoles, WSI) related to brain activity. Twelve participants randomly (WTS/WS/WSI) walked on a treadmill at 4 km/h for 10 min. Kinematic analysis (i.e., footstep and gait variability), brain activation (beta wave signal), rating of perceived exertion (RPE, CR-10 scale), and time domain measures of walking variability were assessed. The maximum Lyapunov exponent (LyE) on the stride cycle period’s datasets was also calculated. Stride length and cycle calculated for all walking conditions were 61.59 ± 2.53/63.38 ± 1.43/64.09 ± 2.40 cm and 1.11 ± 0.03/1.14 ± 0.03/1.15 ± 0.04 s (F 1,10 = 4.941/ p = 0.01, F 1,10 = 4.938/ p = 0.012) for WTS, WS, WSI, respectively. Beta wave (F 1,10 = 564.201/ p = 0.0001) was higher in WTS compared to WS and WSI. Analysis of variance’s (ANOVA) LyE showed a F 1,10 = 3.209/ p = 0.056, while post hoc analysis showed a significant effect between WS and WSI with p = 0.023, and nonsignificant effects between WTS and WS/WSI ( p = 0.070/0.607), respectively. Small perturbations of the foot can influence the control of gait rhythmicity by increasing the variability in a dissipative deterministic regimen.

Keywords: barefoot; electroencephalogram (EEG); foot; Lyapunov exponent; motor control (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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