Abstract
Responses of limb movement to external impulsive perturbation during human walking were studied. We measured hip, knee and ankle joint angles and instants of foot contact and lift of both right and left legs from a subject walking on a treadmill. The perturbation was applied at various phases of the locomotion cycle. The result was summarized in sequential changes of phase delay functions which represent phase-dependent dynamic responses to the perturbation. Walking rhythm was delayed for perturbations applied at early swing phases, advanced for late swing phases, and not modified for stance phases. Using the data from our study, we then discuss the neural control mechanism of human locomotion.
