Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-2003

Abstract

This investigation quantitatively characterized the certainty of the aging neuromuscular system in selecting a joint range of motion during gait based on the statistical concept of entropy. Elderly and young control groups walked on a treadmill at a self-selected pace. Joint angles were calculated for the ankle, knee and hip. We hypothesized that the aging group would exhibit less certainty in selecting a joint range of motion during gait. Our results supported this hypothesis, and indicated that aged individuals demonstrated statistically less certainty for the knee (16.8%) and hip (24.6%). We suggest that neurophysiological changes associated with aging may result in less certainty of the neuromuscular system in selecting a stable gait.

Comments

NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Neuroscience Letters. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Neuroscience Letters, Vol. 348, Issue 3 (September 2003) doi:10.1016/S0304-3940(03)00736-5

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Journal Title

Neuroscience Letters

Volume

348

Issue

3

First Page

155

Last Page

158

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Biomechanics Commons

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