Trial reportJournal of the Royal Society, Interface2019
The foot is more than a spring: human foot muscles perform work to adapt to the energetic requirements of locomotion.
Trial report in Journal of the Royal Society, Interface, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 38 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
38 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 117 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effect of intrinsic foot muscles training on foot function and dynamic postural balance: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PloS one · 2022Pooled it
- Effects of Rhythm Step Training on Foot and Lower Limb Balance in Children and Adolescents with Flat Feet: A Radiographic Analysis.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2024Trial
- Deformable foot orthoses shift the functional roles of foot and ankle joints during walking gait.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- The Effect of a Novel Achilles Brace on Concentric and Eccentric Achilles Tendon Loading During Tendon Tear Mechanisms.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Limb salvage with tibial nerve repair via acute shortening and gradual lengthening in a Gustilo type IIIB tibial shaft fracture: EMG-proven reinnervation of intrinsic foot muscles.Trauma case reports · 2026Article
- Acute Effects of an Elastic Toe-Tube Exercise on Intrinsic Foot Muscle Size and Reactive Strength in Healthy Young Men: A Randomized Crossover Study.International journal of sports physical therapy · 2026Article
- The influence of body posture and added mass on intrinsic and extrinsic foot muscle activation and force output during common foot strengthening exercises.Journal of sport and health science · 2025Article
- Motors and Dampers: The Energetic Tradeoffs in the Shod Foot With Increasing Walking Velocity.Journal of foot and ankle research · 2025Article
- Muscle Strengthening Exercises for the Foot and Ankle: A Scoping Review Exploring Adherence to Best Practice for Optimizing Musculoskeletal Health.Journal of foot and ankle research · 2025Article
- HumanHeliyon · 2025Article
- Applications of bone regenerative medicine in the foot and ankle: mechanisms, technologies, and therapeutic advances.Frontiers in bioengineering and biotechnology · 2025Review
- Torque-angle relationships of human toe flexor muscles highlight their capacity for propulsion in gait.The Journal of experimental biology · 2025Article
- The effect of including a mobile arch, toe joint, and joint coupling on predictive neuromuscular simulations of human walking.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- A dynamic foot model for predictive simulations of human gait reveals causal relations between foot structure and whole-body mechanics.PLoS computational biology · 2024Article
- Human foot form and function: variable and versatile, yet sufficiently related to predict function from form.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Article
- Examining the intrinsic foot muscles' capacity to modulate plantar flexor gearing and ankle joint contributions to propulsion in vertical jumping.Journal of sport and health science · 2023Article
- The Effects of Tibialis Posterior Muscle Fatigue and Walking Speed on Dynamic Plantar Pressure Characteristics in Healthy Individuals: A Single Group Pre-Post Test.Journal of clinical practice and research · 2023Article
- 3D Printing of Individual Running Insoles - A Case Study.Orthopedic research and reviews · 2023Article
- Flexor hallucis brevis motor unit behavior in response to moderate increases in rate of force development.PeerJ · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The foot has been considered both as an elastic mechanism that increases the efficiency of locomotion by recycling energy, as well as an energy sink that helps stabilize movement by dissipating energy through contact with the ground. We measured the activity of two intrinsic foot muscles, flexor digitorum brevis (FDB) and abductor hallucis (AH), as well as the mechanical work performed by the foot as a whole and at a modelled plantar muscle-tendon unit (MTU) to test whether these passive mechanics are actively controlled during stepping. We found that the underlying passive visco-elasticity of the foot is modulated by the muscles of the foot, facilitating both dissipation and generation of energy depending on the mechanical requirements at the centre of mass (COM). Compared to level ground stepping, the foot dissipated and generated an additional -0.2 J kg
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What OpenQuestion holds
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.