Abstract
BackgroundWalking is characterized by stable antiphase relations between upper and lower limb movements. Such bilateral rhythmic movement patterns are neuronally generated at levels of the spinal cord and brain stem, that are strongly interconnected with cortical circuitries, including the Supplementary Motor Area (SMA).ObjectiveTo explore cerebral activity associated with multi-limb phase relations in human gait by manipulating mutual attunement of the upper and lower limb antiphase patterns.MethodsCortical activity and gait were assessed by ambulant EEG, accelerometers and videorecordings in 35 healthy participants walking normally and 19 healthy participants walking in amble gait, where upper limbs moved in-phase with the lower limbs. Power changes across the EEG frequency spectrum were assessed by Event Related Spectral Perturbation analysis and gait analysis was performed.ResultsAmble gait was associated with enhanced Event Related Desynchronization (ERD) prior to and during especially the left swing phase and reduced Event Related Synchronization (ERS) at final swing phases. ERD enhancement was most pronounced over the putative right premotor, right primary motor and right parietal cortex, indicating involvement of higher-order organization and somatosensory guidance in the production of this more complex gait pattern, with an apparent right hemisphere dominance. The diminished within-step ERD/ERS pattern in amble gait, also over the SMA, suggests that this gait pattern is more stride driven instead of step driven.ConclusionIncreased four-limb phase complexity recruits distributed networks upstream of the primary motor cortex, primarily lateralized in the right hemisphere. Similar parietal-premotor involvement has been described to compensate impaired SMA function in Parkinson’s disease bimanual antiphase movement, indicating a role as cortical support regions.
Highlights
Walking is characterized by a stereotypic multi-limb movement pattern with stable phase relations between all four limbs (Wannier et al, 2001)
Nineteen participants (9 males and 10 females, 69 ± 4 years) performed a second session that consisted of amble gait where they were instructed to walk while swinging their arms in-phase with their legs
As both walking modes are characterized by antiphase movements of the arms as well as the legs, the re-ordering of this stereotypic movement pattern in amble gait provides insight in the dynamical qualities of cortical circuitry implicated in the control of antiphase movement patterns of opposite limbs in human gait
Summary
Walking is characterized by a stereotypic multi-limb movement pattern with stable phase relations between all four limbs (Wannier et al, 2001). In conditions of pathology, enhanced complexity of antiphase movements finds support by the observed difficulty of making bimanual anti-phase movements that occurs e.g., in Parkinson’s disease when patients tend to revert anti- to in phase movements (Johnson et al, 1998; Almeida et al, 2002) This is consistent with the increase of mirror movements of opposite hands as a consequence of impaired transcallosal inhibition (Welniarz et al, 2019). Walking is characterized by stable antiphase relations between upper and lower limb movements Such bilateral rhythmic movement patterns are neuronally generated at levels of the spinal cord and brain stem, that are strongly interconnected with cortical circuitries, including the Supplementary Motor Area (SMA)
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