Background: While the effects of diseases, performance of proprioceptors, anxiety or pain on gait stability or automaticity of walking are well-explored, physical fatigue might be another relevant factor whose consequences are not sufficiently investigated, yet.
Research question: The aim of the current study was to evaluate the effect of physical exhaustion on local dynamic stability (LDS) and automaticity of gait.
Methods: In a randomized controlled trial, 30 young and healthy adults were randomly assigned to either a passive control group or a fatigue group. The participants assigned to the fatigue group passed a shuttle-run test which finished at maximal exhaustion while those of the control group rested in sitting position for 15 min. Immediately before and after the intervention, local dynamic gait stability as well as the cognitive (serial seven subtractions) and motor dual-task costs, as a measure of automaticity, were registered.
Results: While there was no effect of fatigue on LDS during single-task walking, we observed an interaction effect for LDS in the dual-task condition (p = .034) and for the motor dual-task costs (p = .031). Lower dual-task costs were found in the fatigued group in the post-test compared to the pre-test while the control group increased their costs at the same time.
Significance: In conclusion, gait automaticity might increase after total exhaustion in young adults. Still, the underlying mechanisms are not completely resolved and further research incorporating measurements of cortical gait control might be promising.
Keywords: Automaticity of gait; Dual-task; Fatigue; Largest Lyapunov exponent; Local dynamic gait stability.
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