There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.
Abstract
Electromyogram (EMG) profiles strongly depend on walking speed and, in pathological
gait, patients do not usually walk at normal speeds. EMG data was collected from 14
muscles in two groups of healthy young subjects who walked at five different speeds
ranging from 0.75 to 1.75 ms(-1). We found that average EMG profiles varied in a predictable
way with speed. The average EMG profile for each muscle at any speed could be estimated
in a simple way from two functions, one constant and one proportionally increasing
with walking speed. By taking into account the similarity among profiles within functional
groups, the number of basic functions could be reduced further. Any average EMG profile
among the 14 leg muscles studied at all speeds in the measured range could be predicted
from six constant and ten speed-dependent basic patterns. These results can be interpreted
in terms of a central pattern generator for human walking.
Copyright 2002 Elsevier Science B.V.