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Gait termination in young and older adults : effect of stopping stimulus probability and stimulus delay

journal contribution
posted on 2004-06-01, 00:00 authored by Oren Tirosh, W Sparrow
Sixteen young (25±2.6 years) and 16 older individuals (69±4.4 years) walked normally then terminated walking rapidly. A visual stopping stimulus was presented 10 ms following ground contact (short delay) and in another condition, at 450 ms prior to toe-off (long delay). Stimulus probability was either high (80% of trials) or low (10%). The younger group stopped faster (463 vs. 574 ms) despite also walking faster (1.29 vs. 1.17 m s−1). Longer delay decreased one-step responses but older participants used significantly more (slower) two-step stopping, which increased stopping time and distance. The additional step may have been pre-planned to maintain medial–lateral stability.

History

Journal

Gait and posture

Volume

19

Issue

3

Pagination

243 - 251

Publisher

Elsevier BV

Location

Amsterdam, Netherlands

ISSN

0966-6362

eISSN

1879-2219

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2003, Elsevier B.V.