Fractal Gait Patterns Are Retained after Entrainment to a Fractal Stimulus

Previous work has shown that fractal patterns in gait can be altered by entraining to a fractal stimulus. However, little is understood about how long those patterns are retained or which factors may influence stronger entrainment or retention. In experiment one, participants walked on a treadmill for 45 continuous minutes, which was separated into three phases. The first 15 minutes (pre-synchronization phase) consisted of walking without a fractal stimulus, the second 15 minutes consisted of walking while entraining to a fractal visual stimulus (synchronization phase), and the last 15 minutes (post-synchronization phase) consisted of walking without the stimulus to determine if the patterns adopted from the stimulus were retained. Fractal gait patterns were strengthened during the synchronization phase and were retained in the post-synchronization phase. In experiment two, similar methods were used to compare a continuous fractal stimulus to a discrete fractal stimulus to determine which stimulus type led to more persistent fractal gait patterns in the synchronization and post-synchronization (i.e., retention) phases. Both stimulus types led to equally persistent patterns in the synchronization phase, but only the discrete fractal stimulus led to retention of the patterns. The results add to the growing body of literature showing that fractal gait patterns can be manipulated in a predictable manner. Further, our results add to the literature by showing that the newly adopted gait patterns are retained for up to 15 minutes after entrainment and showed that a discrete visual stimulus is a better method to influence retention.