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Gait Variability is Altered in Older Adults When Listening to Auditory Stimuli with Differing Temporal Structures

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Abstract

Gait variability in the context of a deterministic dynamical system may be quantified using nonlinear time series analyses that characterize the complexity of the system. Pathological gait exhibits altered gait variability. It can be either too periodic and predictable, or too random and disordered, as is the case with aging. While gait therapies often focus on restoration of linear measures such as gait speed or stride length, we propose that the goal of gait therapy should be to restore optimal gait variability, which exhibits chaotic fluctuations and is the balance between predictability and complexity. In this context, our purpose was to investigate how listening to different auditory stimuli affects gait variability. Twenty-seven young and 27 elderly subjects walked on a treadmill for 5 min while listening to white noise, a chaotic rhythm, a metronome, and with no auditory stimulus. Stride length, step width, and stride intervals were calculated for all conditions. Detrended Fluctuation Analysis was then performed on these time series. A quadratic trend analysis determined that an idealized inverted-U shape described the relationship between gait variability and the structure of the auditory stimuli for the elderly group, but not for the young group. This proof-of-concept study shows that the gait of older adults may be manipulated using auditory stimuli. Future work will investigate which structures of auditory stimuli lead to improvements in functional status in older adults.

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Acknowledgments

Funding was provided by NIH/NIA (R01AG034995), Nebraska Research Initiative, and the NASA EPSCoR (NNX11AM06A).

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There are no conflicts of interest relating to this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nebraska Biomechanics Core Facility, Department of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation, University of Nebraska at Omaha, 6001 Dodge Street, HPER 207, Omaha, NE, 68134, USA

    Jeffrey P. Kaipust, Denise McGrath, Mukul Mukherjee & Nicholas Stergiou

  2. Department of Environmental, Agricultural & Occupational Health, College of Public Health, University of Nebraska Medical Center, 984355 Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, 68198, USA

    Nicholas Stergiou

Authors
  1. Jeffrey P. Kaipust
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  2. Denise McGrath
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  3. Mukul Mukherjee
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  4. Nicholas Stergiou
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Correspondence to Nicholas Stergiou.

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Associate Editor Dan Elson oversaw the review of this article.

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Kaipust, J.P., McGrath, D., Mukherjee, M. et al. Gait Variability is Altered in Older Adults When Listening to Auditory Stimuli with Differing Temporal Structures. Ann Biomed Eng 41, 1595–1603 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-012-0654-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-012-0654-9

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