Walking With Ears: Altered Auditory Feedback Impacts Gait Step Length in Older Adults.

摘要: Auditory feedback may provide the nervous system with valuable temporal (e. g., footstep sounds) and spatial (e.g., external reference information that can assist in control of upright walking. As such, hearing loss directly contribute to declines mobility among older adults. Our purpose was examine impact auditory on walking Twenty adults (65-86 years) no diagnosed walked a treadmill for three sound conditions: Baseline, Ear Plugs, White Noise. We hypothesized response reduced during Plugs Noise conditions, participants would adapt shorter faster steps are traditionally believed increase mechanical stability. This hypothesis not supported. Interestingly, we observed increases step length (p = 0.047) time 0.026) condition vs. Baseline. Taking longer have increased ground reaction forces, thus allowing sense footsteps via an occlusion effect. follow-up, performed Pearson's correlation relating participants' scores clinical balance test, Functional Gait Assessment. found moderate negative relationship (rho -0.44, p 0.055), indicating worse made greatest condition. trend suggests actively sought steps, sacrificing more mechanically stable stepping pattern. also localization conditions decrease center mass (COM) dynamics, resulting lateral COM excursion, margin stability, maximum Lyapunov exponent. However, main effects these metrics 0.580, 0.896, 0.056, respectively). Overall, results suggest steady-state task, healthy maintain without feedback. cues locomotor becomes increasingly as deteriorates age.