Article

Physical guidance is often used in rehabilitation when teaching patients to
re-learn movements. However, the effects of guidance on motor learning of complex
skills, such as walking balance, are not clear. We tested four groups of healthy
subjects that practiced walking on a narrow (1.27 cm) or wide (2.5 cm)
treadmill-mounted balance beam, with or without physical guidance. Assistance was
given by springs attached to a hip belt that applied restoring forces towards
beam center. Subjects were evaluated while walking unassisted before and after
training by calculating the number of times subjects stepped off of the beam per
minute of successful walking on the beam (Failures per Minute). Subjects in
Unassisted groups had greater performance improvements in walking balance from
pre to post compared to subjects in Assisted groups. During training, Unassisted
groups had more Failures per Minute than Assisted groups. Performance
improvements were smaller in Narrow Beam groups than in Wide Beam groups. The
Unassisted-Wide and Assisted-Narrow groups had similar Failures per Minute during
training, but the Unassisted-Wide group had much greater performance gains after
training. These results suggest that physical assistance can hinder motor
learning of walking balance, assistance appears less detrimental for more
difficult tasks, and task-specific dynamics are important to learning independent
of error experience.

Langue : ANGLAIS