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Mountain Hiking: Prolonged Eccentric Muscle Contraction during Simulated Downhill Walking Perturbs Sensorimotor Control Loops Needed for Safe Dynamic Foot–Ground Interactions
Safe mountain hiking requires precise control of dynamic foot–ground interactions. In addition to vision and vestibular afferents, limb proprioception, sensorimotor control loops, and reflex responses are used to adapt to the specific nature of the ground contact. Diminished leg dexterity and balanc...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10094178/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37048038 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20075424 |
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author | Werner, Inge Valero-Cuevas, Francisco J. Federolf, Peter |
author_facet | Werner, Inge Valero-Cuevas, Francisco J. Federolf, Peter |
author_sort | Werner, Inge |
collection | PubMed |
description | Safe mountain hiking requires precise control of dynamic foot–ground interactions. In addition to vision and vestibular afferents, limb proprioception, sensorimotor control loops, and reflex responses are used to adapt to the specific nature of the ground contact. Diminished leg dexterity and balance during downhill walking is usually attributed to fatigue. We investigated the supplementary hypothesis that the eccentric contractions inherent to downhill walking can also disrupt muscle proprioception, as well as the sensorimotor control loops and reflex responses that depend on it. In this study, we measured leg dexterity (LD), anterior–posterior (AP) and medio–lateral (ML) bipedal balance, and maximal voluntary leg extension strength in young and healthy participants before and after 30 min of simulated downhill walking at a natural pace on a treadmill at a 20° decline. Post–pre comparisons of LD (p < 0.001) and AP balance (p = 0.001) revealed significant reductions in dynamic foot–ground interactions after eccentric exercise without an accompanying reduction in leg extension strength. We conclude that eccentric contractions during downhill walking can disrupt the control of dynamic foot–ground interactions independently of fatigue. We speculate that mountaineering safety could be improved by increasing conscious attention to compensate for unadjusted proprioception weighting, especially in the descent. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10094178 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-100941782023-04-13 Mountain Hiking: Prolonged Eccentric Muscle Contraction during Simulated Downhill Walking Perturbs Sensorimotor Control Loops Needed for Safe Dynamic Foot–Ground Interactions Werner, Inge Valero-Cuevas, Francisco J. Federolf, Peter Int J Environ Res Public Health Brief Report Safe mountain hiking requires precise control of dynamic foot–ground interactions. In addition to vision and vestibular afferents, limb proprioception, sensorimotor control loops, and reflex responses are used to adapt to the specific nature of the ground contact. Diminished leg dexterity and balance during downhill walking is usually attributed to fatigue. We investigated the supplementary hypothesis that the eccentric contractions inherent to downhill walking can also disrupt muscle proprioception, as well as the sensorimotor control loops and reflex responses that depend on it. In this study, we measured leg dexterity (LD), anterior–posterior (AP) and medio–lateral (ML) bipedal balance, and maximal voluntary leg extension strength in young and healthy participants before and after 30 min of simulated downhill walking at a natural pace on a treadmill at a 20° decline. Post–pre comparisons of LD (p < 0.001) and AP balance (p = 0.001) revealed significant reductions in dynamic foot–ground interactions after eccentric exercise without an accompanying reduction in leg extension strength. We conclude that eccentric contractions during downhill walking can disrupt the control of dynamic foot–ground interactions independently of fatigue. We speculate that mountaineering safety could be improved by increasing conscious attention to compensate for unadjusted proprioception weighting, especially in the descent. MDPI 2023-04-06 /pmc/articles/PMC10094178/ /pubmed/37048038 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20075424 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Brief Report Werner, Inge Valero-Cuevas, Francisco J. Federolf, Peter Mountain Hiking: Prolonged Eccentric Muscle Contraction during Simulated Downhill Walking Perturbs Sensorimotor Control Loops Needed for Safe Dynamic Foot–Ground Interactions |
title | Mountain Hiking: Prolonged Eccentric Muscle Contraction during Simulated Downhill Walking Perturbs Sensorimotor Control Loops Needed for Safe Dynamic Foot–Ground Interactions |
title_full | Mountain Hiking: Prolonged Eccentric Muscle Contraction during Simulated Downhill Walking Perturbs Sensorimotor Control Loops Needed for Safe Dynamic Foot–Ground Interactions |
title_fullStr | Mountain Hiking: Prolonged Eccentric Muscle Contraction during Simulated Downhill Walking Perturbs Sensorimotor Control Loops Needed for Safe Dynamic Foot–Ground Interactions |
title_full_unstemmed | Mountain Hiking: Prolonged Eccentric Muscle Contraction during Simulated Downhill Walking Perturbs Sensorimotor Control Loops Needed for Safe Dynamic Foot–Ground Interactions |
title_short | Mountain Hiking: Prolonged Eccentric Muscle Contraction during Simulated Downhill Walking Perturbs Sensorimotor Control Loops Needed for Safe Dynamic Foot–Ground Interactions |
title_sort | mountain hiking: prolonged eccentric muscle contraction during simulated downhill walking perturbs sensorimotor control loops needed for safe dynamic foot–ground interactions |
topic | Brief Report |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10094178/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37048038 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20075424 |
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