Effects of periodic sensory perturbations during electrical stimulation on gait cycle period

The spinal cord contains the neural circuitry needed to generate rhythmic walking motions, and afferent sensory feedbacks are involved in the control of locomotion. In this study, we examined the influence of periodic electrical stimulation on the change in gait cycle period during treadmill walking. 40 subjects walked on a treadmill while receiving periodic bursts of electrical stimulation at various perturbation periods (-20, -40, -60, +20, +40 milliseconds from their initial gait cycle periods). Eleven subjects received electrical stimulation to the hamstring, and 29 received electrical stimulation to the calf. Each subject completed four trials; two trials were conducted using high amplitude stimulation causing a slight degree of joint motion, and the other two trials were conducted using reduced amplitude stimulation which did not cause observable motion. Through the trials, we sought to answer the following questions: 1) does the amplitude of electrical stimulation have an effect on the level of entrainment? 2) does the stimulation site effect the level of entrainment? Entrainment refers to the synchronization of gait cycle period to the period of electrical stimulation. The results showed that entrainment was observed when the perturbation periods were induced relatively close to the subject’s initial gait cycle period. For both stimulation sites, entrainment was shown in 59% of subjects at +/- 20 milliseconds from the initial gait cycle period. With reduced amplitude, entrainment was still observed (51% all stimulation site groups at +/- 20 milliseconds). In addition, after-effects following electrical perturbation were present as seen by changes in the mean gait cycle period. Our results suggest that human locomotor control is organized with a semi-autonomous peripheral oscillator influenced by afferent information, and that electrical stimulation has the potential to be a simpler, and cost-effective tool for locomotion rehabilitation.