Paretic versus non-paretic stepping responses following pelvis perturbations in walking chronic-stage stroke survivors

I got nothing out of this that might help my walking, mainly because spasticity was never discussed. I perturb my gait a lot by walking on roots and branches on the ground. I do have to look at the ground to see where I should place my feet.
https://jneuroengrehab.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12984-017-0317-z

• Juliet A. M. Haarman†,
• Mark Vlutters†Email authorView ORCID ID profile,
• Richelle A. C. M. Olde Keizer,
• Edwin H. F. van Asseldonk,
• Jaap H. Buurke,
• Jasper Reenalda,
• Johan S. Rietman and
• Herman van der Kooij

†Contributed equally

Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation201714:106

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12984-017-0317-z

©  The Author(s). 2017

Received: 1 May 2017

Accepted: 5 October 2017

Published: 13 October 2017

Abstract

Background

The effects of a stroke, such as hemiparesis, can severely hamper the ability to walk and to maintain balance during gait. Providing support to stroke survivors through a robotic exoskeleton, either to provide training or daily-life support, requires an understanding of the balance impairments that result from a stroke. Here, we investigate the differences between the paretic and non-paretic leg in making recovery steps to restore balance following a disturbance during walking.

Methods

We perturbed 10 chronic-stage stroke survivors during walking using mediolateral perturbations of various amplitudes. Kinematic data as well as gluteus medius muscle activity levels during the first recovery step were recorded and analyzed.

Results

The results show that this group of subjects is able to modulate foot placement in response to the perturbations regardless of the leg being paretic or not. Modulation in gluteus medius activity with the various perturbations is in line with this observation. In general, the foot of the paretic leg was laterally placed further away from the center of mass than that of the non-paretic leg, while subjects spent more time standing on the non-paretic leg.

Conclusions

The findings suggest that, though stroke-related gait characteristics are present, the modulation with the various perturbations remains unaffected. This might be because all subjects were only mildly impaired, or because these stepping responses partly occur through involuntary pathways which remain unaffected by the complications after the stroke.

More at link.