Quantifying Human Gait Symmetry During Blindfolded Treadmill Walking.

Bilateral gait symmetry is an essential requirement for normal walking since asymmetric gait patterns increase the risk of falls and injuries. While human gait control heavily relies on the contribution of sensory inputs, the role of sensory systems in producing symmetric gait has remained unclear. This study evaluated the influence of vision as a dominant sensory system on symmetric gait production. Ten healthy adults performed treadmill walking with and without vision. Twenty-two gait parameters including ground reaction forces, joint range of motion, and other spatial-temporal gait variables were evaluated to quantify gait symmetry and compared between both visual conditions. Visual block caused increased asymmetry in most parameters of ground reaction force, however mainly in the vertical direction. When vision was blocked, symmetry of the ankle and knee joint range of motion decreased, but this change did not occur in the hip joint. Stance and swing time symmetry decreased during no-vision walking while no significant difference was found for step length symmetry between the two conditions. This study provides a comprehensive analysis to reveal how the visual system influences bilateral gait symmetry and highlights the important role of vision in gait control. This approach could be applied to investigate how vision alters gait symmetry in patients with disorders to help better understand the role of vision in pathological gaits.

Lack of visual information alters lower limb motor coordination to control center of mass trajectory during walking.

Vision, as queen of the senses, plays a critical role in guiding locomotion. Little is known about the effects of vision on gait coordination in terms of variability. The uncontrolled manifold (UCM) approach offers a window to the structure of motor variability that has been difficult to obtain from the traditional correlation analysis. In this study, we used the UCM analysis to quantify how the lower limb motion is coordinated to control the center of mass (COM) while walking under different visual conditions. We also probed how synergy strength evolved along the stance phase. Ten healthy participants walked on the treadmill with and without visual information. Leg joint angle variance with respect to the whole-body COM was partitioned into good (i.e., the one that kept the COM) and bad (i.e., the one that changed the COM) variances. We observed that after vision was eliminated, both variances increased throughout the stance phase while the strength of the synergy (the normalized difference between the two variances) decreased significantly and even reduced to zero at heel contact. Thus, walking with restricted vision alters the strength of the kinematic synergy to control COM in the plane of progression. We also found that the strength of this synergy varied across different walking phases and gait events in both visual conditions. We concluded that the UCM analysis can quantify altered coordination of COM when vision is blocked and sheds insights on the role of vision in the synergistic control of locomotion.

Validity and reliability of the movement assessment battery second edition test in children with and without motor impairment: A prospective cohort study.

Background: Examining the reliability and validity of the second edition movement assessment battery test (MABC-2) in children with and without motor impairment. Materials and methods: In this prospective cohort study, the MABC-2 test and developmental coordination disorder questionnaire 2007 (DCDQ'07) were completed by children and their parents. By using 95% confidence intervals, minimal detectable change (MDC95) was calculated, and concurrent validity was investigated. By applying the MABC-2 test as a reference standard (cut-off fifth centile), sensitivity and specificity were examined. Results: 273 children (mean age: 6.3 ± 2.3 years; 70% male) with and without motor impairment completed the investigation. For test-retest reliability, intra-class correlation coefficients (ICCs) was >0.89 for the MABC-2 test. The MDC95 value for the motor skill test was 5.76. There was a significant correlation between the MABC-2 test and DCDQ'07 (r = 0.60, P < 0.001) and the Go/No-Go test (r = 0.50, P < 0.001). Overall, the sensitivity was very high (90%), the specificity was low (46%), and positive and negative predictive values were high (69% and 81%, respectively). Conclusion: The MABC-2 test can be considered a valid and reliable motor skill assessment tool for children with and without motor impairment.

The Effects of Aquatic Versus Kata Techniques Training on Static and Dynamic Balance in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

The present study aimed to compare the effect of a land-based and a swimming-based exercise program on balance abilities in children with autism. Thirty children were voluntarily selected and randomly assigned to karate exercise, aquatic training and control groups. Participants practiced for 10 weeks, 2 sessions of 60 min per week. Before and after the 10-week intervention, static and dynamic balance tests were administered. The results showed that both interventions had a significant effect on balance abilities (p < 0.001); interestingly, we found the greater improvement in balance performance in kata techniques group. Due to the importance of balance performance on daily functions, communication and interaction skills, karate and swimming exercises can be the valuable interventions added to autism's daily programs. Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials number: IRCT20180626040242N1.

The History of Melancholia Disease.

BACKGROUND: Melancholia is a kind of depression with the most common symptoms of evident mental disorder, slimness, lack of enjoyment, feeling guilty and having no appetite. In modern medicine, the word "melancholia" only refers to mental and affective symptoms of depression. However, historically, it could have physical symptoms as well as mental symptoms and the atrabilious situations were categorized according to their common reasons rather than their specific characteristics. This study aimed to enlighten the history of this disease. METHODS: This is a review article concerned with cerebral diseases by collecting data from medical electronic databases including PUBMED and SID, historical psychiatry books and traditional medicine manuscripts. RESULTS: The first known physician to have scientifically looked at the mental diseases was Hippocrates (370-460 B.C), who should be accredited as the father of medicine. While physicians in the time of Hippocrates seriously believed in the metaphysics power in health and diseases, Hippocrates believed in natural laws. Plato (348-428 B.C) believed that human behavior is affected by his physical needs and instincts. In the course of Hippocrates's theory about bodily humors, Aristotle considered a range of mental characteristics for each. Finally, Galen believed that cerebral disease causes mental diseases or disorders based on his own theories of anatomy. Persian physicians involved in this area were Rabban al-Tabari (838-870 A.D), Razes (865-925 A.D), Ali-Ibn Abbas Ahvazi (944-982 A.D), Al-ikhwan al bukhari the physician of the ninth century, Ibn Sina (980-1037 A.D), Gorgani (1040-1136 A.D) and Khaje Nasireddin Tousi (1201-1274 A.D). They considered cerebral diseases and health as a part of equality process; different organs accommodate a physical system and mutual dependence with the society and environment. CONCLUSION: Mental health has been reviewed from various aspects in view of ancient physicians. Feeble mindedness and behavioral disorder complications had already been addressed in earlier times too.