Investigating if Abnormal Gait and Muscle Activity Stems from Differing Walking Speeds
School Name
South Carolina Governor's School for Science and Mathematics
Grade Level
12th Grade
Presentation Topic
Physiology and Health
Presentation Type
Mentored
Abstract
There is a lack of human locomotion studies that examine how neurological injuries may affect an individual walking at different speeds. My summer research worked to determine if individuals with spinal cord injuries’ (SCI) gait and muscle activity was abnormal because of their abnormally slow walking speed or neurological injuries. To observe the effect of different walking speeds on the gait cycle, I hooked up participants to electrodes placed along their leg and on the muscles I analyzed including the soleus, medial gastroc, lateral gastroc, and tibialis anterior with activity seen on an EMG. Once both SCI and Non-SCI participants were hooked up, I had them walk on a treadmill at as many speeds as they could walk at which ranged from 0.3m/s to 1.8m/s. While participants walked, I delivered a stim in a mixed peripheral nerve which is a nerve with both a sensory and motor nerve in order to receive an H-reflex. Additionally, I delivered a high enough stim to trigger activity in the motor nerve at the same time which causes a muscle twitch and results in an M-wave. After analyzing the data we collected on Matlab, I created various sweeps of locomotor EMGs and H-reflex amplitudes of our chosen muscles. These results indicated that abnormal gait and muscle activity likely stems from SCI’s walking speed and not neurological injuries because there were similarities in both SCI and Non-SCI participants' activity when walking at slow speeds.
Recommended Citation
McLeod, Eleanor, "Investigating if Abnormal Gait and Muscle Activity Stems from Differing Walking Speeds" (2025). South Carolina Junior Academy of Science. 54.
https://scholarexchange.furman.edu/scjas/2025/all/54
Location
PENNY 304
Start Date
4-5-2025 9:15 AM
Presentation Format
Oral Only
Group Project
No
Investigating if Abnormal Gait and Muscle Activity Stems from Differing Walking Speeds
PENNY 304
There is a lack of human locomotion studies that examine how neurological injuries may affect an individual walking at different speeds. My summer research worked to determine if individuals with spinal cord injuries’ (SCI) gait and muscle activity was abnormal because of their abnormally slow walking speed or neurological injuries. To observe the effect of different walking speeds on the gait cycle, I hooked up participants to electrodes placed along their leg and on the muscles I analyzed including the soleus, medial gastroc, lateral gastroc, and tibialis anterior with activity seen on an EMG. Once both SCI and Non-SCI participants were hooked up, I had them walk on a treadmill at as many speeds as they could walk at which ranged from 0.3m/s to 1.8m/s. While participants walked, I delivered a stim in a mixed peripheral nerve which is a nerve with both a sensory and motor nerve in order to receive an H-reflex. Additionally, I delivered a high enough stim to trigger activity in the motor nerve at the same time which causes a muscle twitch and results in an M-wave. After analyzing the data we collected on Matlab, I created various sweeps of locomotor EMGs and H-reflex amplitudes of our chosen muscles. These results indicated that abnormal gait and muscle activity likely stems from SCI’s walking speed and not neurological injuries because there were similarities in both SCI and Non-SCI participants' activity when walking at slow speeds.
