On the origin of planar covariation of elevation angles during human locomotion.

@article{Ivanenko2008OnTO,
  title={On the origin of planar covariation of elevation angles during human locomotion.},
  author={Yuri P. Ivanenko and Andrea d’Avella and Richard Poppele and Francesco Lacquaniti},
  journal={Journal of neurophysiology},
  year={2008},
  volume={99 4},
  pages={
          1890-8
        }
}
Leg segment rotations in human walking covary, so that the three-dimensional trajectory of temporal changes in the elevation angles lies close to a plane. Recently the role of central versus biomechanical constraints on the kinematics control of human locomotion has been questioned. Here we show, based on both modeling and experimental data, that the planar law of intersegmental coordination is not a simple consequence of biomechanics. First, the full limb behavior in various locomotion modes… 
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Modifications in the kinematic pattern with slope depend on speed: at slow speeds, the net vertical displacement of the body during each step is related to changes in limb length and orientation; when speed increases, the vertical displacement is mostly related to a change in limb orientation.
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The results of this study indicate that the Planar Co-Variation Law will include situations where the walking surface is not level and provides further support to models of motor control that have been proposed where walking patterns for different modes of gait can be predicted based on the orientation of the co-variation plane.
Planar Covariation of Hindlimb and Forelimb Elevation Angles during Terrestrial and Aquatic Locomotion of Dogs
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The results demonstrate that the planar covariation of inter-segmental coordination has emerged for both fore- and hindlimbs and all gaits, although in a limb-specific manner.
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It was proposed that the CNS adjusts a basic locomotor pattern for environmental constraints by manipulating elevation angle phase differences between adjacent segments as well as elevation angle amplitudes by the central nervous system.
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In human bipedal walking, temporal changes in the elevation angle of the thigh, shank and foot segments covary to form a regular loop within a single plane in three-dimensional space. In this study,…
An analytical formulation of the law of intersegmental coordination during human locomotion
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A mathematical model that represents the rotations of the elevation angles in terms of simple oscillators with appropriate phase shifts between them is presented, and sheds some new light on the possible interactions among the Central Pattern Generators possibly underlying the control of biped locomotion.
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It is argued that the maintenance of a roughly constant planar covariance--irrespective of the surface inclination and height--may be functional to the exploratory behavior, consistent with the hypothesis proposed decades ago by Bernstein that humans may restrict the number of degrees of freedom to reduce the size of the search space and simplify the coordination.
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