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<p>
<img src="new-gait-ts.png" alt="[Plots of stride dynamics]" align=right>
In very young children, immature control of posture and gait result in
an unsteady gait. By about three years of age, gait appears
relatively mature. However, it is unknown whether the dynamics of
walking change beyond this age. Because stride dynamics depend on
neural control, we hypothesized that gait dynamics would continue to
develop beyond age three. To test this hypothesis, we measured the
gait cycle duration on a stride-by-stride basis in healthy children
(n=50) ages 3 to 14 years old, using a portable foot-switch
device inserted inside of shoes.
The figure on the right shows representative walking time series of 4, 7,
and 11-year-old children.
<p><hr>
<ul>
<li>
You are invited to download the complete database (available as a
<a href="gait-maturation-db.tar.gz">gzip-compressed UNIX tar archive</a>
<nobr>(<!--#fsize file="gait-maturation-db.tar.gz" -->),</nobr>
or as <a href="data/">individual files</a>) and perform your own analyses.
(WinZip users, please read this important
<a href="/faq.shtml#tar-gz">note</a>.)
<li>
A <a href="http://jap.physiology.org" target="other">Journal of
Applied Physiology</a> article describing an initial analysis of these
data can be viewed in <a href="jap/gait-reprint.html">HTML format</a>,
<a href="jap/gait-reprint.ps">PostScript format</a>, and <a
href="jap/gait-reprint.pdf">PDF format.</a>
<li>
For more information, please contact <a
href="mailto:jhausdor@caregroup.harvard.edu">JM Hausdorff
(<tt>jhausdorff@caregroup.harvard.edu</tt>)</a>.
</ul>
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