ArticleScientific reports2018
Challenging human locomotion: stability and modular organisation in unsteady conditions.
Article in Scientific reports, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 84 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
84 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 153 citations in OpenAlex.
- Assessing running stability: a systematic review of methods.BMC sports science, medicine & rehabilitation · 2026Pooled it
- Effects of Precooling on Endurance Exercise Performance in the Heat: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.Nutrients · 2024Pooled it
- A Resistive Soft Robotic Exosuit for Dynamic Body Loading in Hypogravity.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Trial
- Biomechanical Changes During Running on a Lower Body Positive Pressure Treadmill in Competitive Runners.Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports · 2025Trial
- Running barefoot leads to lower running stability compared to shod running - results from a randomized controlled study.Scientific reports · 2021Trial
- Neuromuscular organisation and robustness of postural control in the presence of perturbations.Scientific reports · 2019Trial
- Value-Gradient Generalist Design of Muscle-Tendon Parameters for Cross-Terrain Musculoskeletal Locomotion.Biomimetics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Cross-species identification of conserved and divergent locomotor kinematic strategies using AutoGaitA.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Movement Dynamics of Treadmill Running Within the Different Exercise Intensity Domains in Male Runners.European journal of sport science · 2026Article
- Limb-specific modulation of muscle synergies and segmental coordination during curved running.Experimental brain research · 2026Article
- Estimating and interpreting how humans prioritize multiple movement goals during walking.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2026Article
- Adaptation-dependent modulation of coordinated muscle activities in human gait adaptation as revealed by tensor decomposition.iScience · 2026Article
- Adaptive alterations in muscle synergies during the recovery step compensate for perturbation-induced stability demands in older adults.BMC geriatrics · 2026Article
- Effects of different post-activation potentiation strategies on forehand stroke performance in elite squash players: a muscle synergy and time-frequency coherence analysis.BMC sports science, medicine & rehabilitation · 2026Article
- Identifying and predicting gait stability metrics in people with stroke in uneven-surface walking using machine learning.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Muscle synergy characteristics of pumping in Chinese elite windsurfers.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Muscle synergy characteristics during hands-and-knees crawling in children aged 4-6 years.PloS one · 2026Article
- Functional symmetrization of neuromotor modules during locomotor development in human infants.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Functional Trade-Offs of Regulatory Mechanisms in the Management of Body Energy, Frontal Plane Angular Momentum and Mediolateral Margin of Stability During Hole Negotiation Gait.Annals of biomedical engineering · 2025Article
- Wearable Tensiometry for Measuring Achilles and Patellar Tendon Loading While Walking on Various Terrains and Stairs.Journal of biomechanical engineering · 2025Article
24 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The need to move over uneven terrain is a daily challenge. In order to face unexpected perturbations due to changes in the morphology of the terrain, the central nervous system must flexibly modify its control strategies. We analysed the local dynamic stability and the modular organisation of muscle activation (muscle synergies) during walking and running on an even- and an uneven-surface treadmill. We hypothesized a reduced stability during uneven-surface locomotion and a reorganisation of the modular control. We found a decreased stability when switching from even- to uneven-surface locomotion (p < 0.001 in walking, p = 0.001 in running). Moreover, we observed a substantial modification of the time-dependent muscle activation patterns (motor primitives) despite a general conservation of the time-independent coefficients (motor modules). The motor primitives were considerably wider in the uneven-surface condition. Specifically, the widening was significant in both the early (+40.5%, p < 0.001) and late swing (+7.7%, p = 0.040) phase in walking and in the weight acceptance (+13.6%, p = 0.006) and propulsion (+6.0%, p = 0.041) phase in running. This widening highlighted an increased motor output's robustness (i.e. ability to cope with errors) when dealing with the unexpected perturbations. Our results confirmed the hypothesis that humans adjust their motor control strategies' timing to deal with unsteady locomotion.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.