Abstract
ObjectiveWalking through a narrow aperture requires unique postural configurations, i.e., body rotation in the yaw dimension. Stroke individuals may have difficulty performing the body rotations due to motor paralysis on one side of their body. The present study was therefore designed to investigate how successfully such individuals walk through apertures and how they perform body rotation behavior.MethodStroke fallers (n = 10), stroke non-fallers (n = 13), and healthy controls (n = 23) participated. In the main task, participants walked for 4 m and passed through apertures of various widths (0.9–1.3 times the participant’s shoulder width). Accidental contact with the frame of an aperture and kinematic characteristics at the moment of aperture crossing were measured. Participants also performed a perceptual judgment task to measure the accuracy of their perceived aperture passability.Results and DiscussionStroke fallers made frequent contacts on their paretic side; however, the contacts were not frequent when they penetrated apertures from their paretic side. Stroke fallers and non-fallers rotated their body with multiple steps, rather than a single step, to deal with their motor paralysis. Although the minimum passable width was greater for stroke fallers, the body rotation angle was comparable among groups. This suggests that frequent contact in stroke fallers was due to insufficient body rotation. The fact that there was no significant group difference in the perceived aperture passability suggested that contact occurred mainly due to locomotor factors rather than perceptual factors. Two possible explanations (availability of vision and/or attention) were provided as to why accidental contact on the paretic side did not occur frequently when stroke fallers penetrated the apertures from their paretic side.
Highlights
Stroke is a disease caused by infarction, or hemorrhages of the blood vessels in the brain
Stroke fallers and non-fallers rotated their body with multiple steps, rather than a single step, to deal with their motor paralysis
The minimum passable width was greater for stroke fallers, the body rotation angle was comparable among groups
Summary
Stroke is a disease caused by infarction, or hemorrhages of the blood vessels in the brain. Stroke is the major cause of neurological disabilities that affect many aspects of daily living. As one such issue, individuals with stroke often exhibit impaired walking, primarily due to motor paralysis on one side (typically the contralateral side of the affected side of the brain) of their body. A typical symptom indicating impaired walking is gait asymmetry. Gait asymmetry is the irregular coordination between the lower limbs and is produced mainly by differences in the magnitude of force displayed between the paretic and non-paretic limbs [1]. Walking with gait asymmetry is biomechanically inefficient for achieving forward progression and makes maintaining balance more challenging [2,3]
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