The effect of constraining mediolateral ankle moments and foot placement on the use of the counter-rotation mechanism during walking

During walking, the center of mass (CoM) position can be controlled relative to the base of support by shifts of the center of pressure through modulation of foot placement and ankle moments (CoP-mechanism). An additional mechanism is the counter-rotation mechanism, i.e. changing the angular momentum of segments around the CoM to change the direction of the ground reaction force. It is unknown if, and how, humans use the counter-rotation mechanism to accelerate the CoM during walking and how this interacts with the CoP-mechanism. Thirteen healthy adults walked on a treadmill, while full-body kinematic and force plate data were obtained. The contributions of the CoP and the counter-rotation mechanisms to CoM-acceleration during steady-state walking, walking on LesSchuh (i.e. constraining mediolateral CoP shifts underneath the stance foot) and walking on LesSchuh at 50% of normal step width, constraining both foot placement and ankle mechanisms (LesSchuh50%) were calculated. The within-stride variance in CoM-acceleration due to the CoP-mechanism was smaller and the within-stride variance in CoM-acceleration due to the counter-rotation mechanism was larger during LesSchuh50% compared to steady-state walking. This suggests that the counter-rotation mechanism is used to stabilize gait when needed, but the CoP-mechanism was the main contributor to the total CoM-acceleration. The use of the counter-rotation mechanism may be limited, because angular accelerations ultimately need to be reversed and because of interference with other task constraints, such as head stabilization and preventing interference with the gait pattern