Premium
Can we really walk straight?
Author(s) -
Uetake Teruo
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
american journal of physical anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.146
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1096-8644
pISSN - 0002-9483
DOI - 10.1002/ajpa.1330890104
Subject(s) - socks , meander (mathematics) , subject (documents) , gait , line (geometry) , asymmetry , psychology , mathematics , physical medicine and rehabilitation , geometry , physics , computer science , medicine , computer network , quantum mechanics , library science
Twenty healthy men were asked to walk as straight as possible to a target 60 m away at normal speed. A series of footprints was recorded for each subject by having him wear socks soaked with red ink and walk on white paper fixed flat to the floor. Fourier analysis was applied to determine whether the subjects actually were able to walk straight, and the results revealed that all walked in a sinuous line rather than a straight line. Periodicity and amplitude of the meandering differed from subject to subject. These facts suggest that none of us can walk in a strictly straight line; rather, we meander, primarily due to a slight structural or functional imbalance of our limbs, which produces a gait asymmetry, and secondarily due to feedback from our sense of sight, which acts to correct the shifted walking course. © 1992 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.