Abstract

Human gait is the most common of all human movements. It is one of the more difficult movement tasks that we learn, but once learnt it becomes almost subconscious. Only when this complex neuromuscular skeletal system is disturbed by traumatic injury, neurological damage, gradual degeneration, or fatigue do we realize our limited understanding of the complex biomechanics and motor control mechanisms. The purpose of this text is to assist in the understanding of those mechanisms, and, through my sixteen years of experience in the assessment of human gait, attempt a summary of the state of knowledge as it appears in the literature, and as represented by normal data collected in my laboratory. Thus, it is hoped that the material content of this book will serve as a reference for those who need baseline measures on normal gait, for those who wish to teach the specific movement of gait, and for those who wish normative curves for mathematical modelling of gait. It will be evident from a close assessment of these normal patterns, their magnitudes, consistency and variability that there are several major sub-functions involved in walking. A look at the motor patterns reveals how the neuromuscular system achieves those tasks and gives some insight into the essential features of that control system. Verf.-Referat