Chapter 5 - Walking

Abstract

This chapter presents an analysis of walking. The capacity for walking appears to be innate. The form that walking takes at any given time depends on the terrain on which one treads and the speed with which one wishes to reach one's destination. These features illustrate ways in which ongoing feedback interacts with built-in neural capacities. Another striking feature of locomotion is that it takes many forms. Trotting, galloping, strutting, creeping, limping, and swimming with various strokes all belong to the same broad performance class as walking. All these behaviors are characterized by rhythmic, alternating activity of limbs on opposing sides of the body, usually carried out for purposes of propelling the body forward. Walking and related forms of locomotion are remarkably flexible. Based on incoming perceptual information, one can speed up or slow down, turn, step up, step down, and even walk backward. The ease with which one can switch from one of these behaviors to another points to a sophisticated mechanism for selecting and initiating different patterns of locomotion. The flexibility of walking is not entirely dictated by the external environment, however. Through internal decisions, people can readily adopt different gaits, including stylized, theatrical patterns such as limping, marching, and dancing.