ArticleJournal of biomechanics2020
How healthy older adults regulate lateral foot placement while walking in laterally destabilizing environments.
Article in Journal of biomechanics, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 45 citations in OpenAlex.
- Unraveling the Impact of Destabilizing Shoes on Balance Control and Fall Prevention in Older Adults: A Systematic Review.Annals of geriatric medicine and research · 2024Pooled it
- Association of Fall-Risk Factors and Margin of Stability While Tripping in Community-Dwelling Older Adults: Experimental Pilot Study.JMIR formative research · 2026Article
- Age-related differences in the step-to-step control of foot placement during prolonged walking.Journal of biomechanics · 2025Article
- Adapting lateral stepping control to walk on winding paths.Journal of biomechanics · 2025Article
- How Healthy Older Adults Enact Lateral Maneuvers While Walking.Gait & posture · 2024Article
- Development and validation of a two-dimensional pseudorandom balance perturbation test.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2024Article
- How older adults regulate lateral stepping on narrowing walking paths.Journal of biomechanics · 2023Article
- Linking whole-body angular momentum and step placement during perturbed human walking.The Journal of experimental biology · 2023Article
- Systematic review of candidate prognostic factors for falling in older adults identified from motion analysis of challenging walking tasks.European review of aging and physical activity : official journal of the European Group for Research into Elderly and Physical Activity · 2023Review
- A Perspective on Using Virtual Reality to Incorporate the Affective Context of Everyday Falls Into Fall Prevention.JMIR aging · 2023Article
- Adaptive multi-objective control explains how humans make lateral maneuvers while walking.PLoS computational biology · 2022Article
- Rethinking margin of stability: Incorporating step-to-step regulation to resolve the paradox.Journal of biomechanics · 2022Article
- Viability, task switching, and fall avoidance of the simplest dynamic walker.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Effects of age, physical and self-perceived balance abilities on lateral stepping adjustments during competing lateral balance tasks.Gait & posture · 2021Article
- Walking humans trade off different task goals to regulate lateral stepping.Journal of biomechanics · 2021Article
- Interactions Between Different Age-Related Factors Affecting Balance Control in Walking.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2020Article
- Anterior-posterior and medial-lateral balance metrics are unchanged when two-dimensional pseudorandom motion perturbations are provided in semicircular canal coordinates.Frontiers in neurologyArticle
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 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Gait variability is generally associated with falls, but specific connections remain disputed. To reduce falls, we must first understand how older adults maintain lateral balance while walking, particularly when their stability is challenged. We recently developed computational models of lateral stepping, based on Goal Equivalent Manifolds, that separate effects of step-to-step regulation from variability. These show walking humans seek to strongly maintain step width, but also lateral position on their path. Here, 17 healthy older (ages 60+) and 17 healthy young (ages 18-31) adults walked in a virtual environment with no perturbations and with laterally destabilizing perturbations of either the visual field or treadmill platform. For step-to-step time series of step widths and lateral positions, we computed variability, statistical persistence and how much participants directly corrected deviations at each step. All participants exhibited significantly increased variability, decreased persistence and tighter direct control when perturbed. Simulations from our stepping regulation models indicate people responded to the increased variability imposed by these perturbations by either maintaining or tightening control of both step width and lateral position. Thus, while people strive to maintain lateral balance, they also actively strive to stay on their path. Healthy older participants exhibited slightly increased variability, but no differences from young in stepping regulation and no evidence of greater reliance on visual feedback, even when subjected to substantially destabilizing perturbations. Thus, age alone need not degrade lateral stepping control. This may help explain why directly connecting gait variability to fall risk has proven difficult.
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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.