title: Asymmetry of anticipatory postural adjustment during gait initiation.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the asymmetry of anticipatory postural adjustment (APA) during gait initiation and to determine whether the process of choosing the initial swing leg affects APA during gait initiation. The participants initiated gait with the leg indicated by a start tone or initiated gait with the leg spontaneously chosen. The dependent variables of APA were not significantly different among the condition of initiating gait with the preferred leg indicated by the start tone, the condition of initiating gait with the non-preferred leg indicated by the start tone, and the condition of initiating gait with the leg spontaneously chosen. These findings fail to support the view that the process of choosing the initial swing leg affects APA during gait initiation. The lateral displacement of the center of pressure in the period in which shifting the center of pressure to the initial swing phase before initiating gait with the left leg indicated by the external cue was significantly larger than that when initiating gait with the right leg indicated by the external cue, and significantly larger than that when initiating gait with the leg spontaneously chosen. Weight shift to the initial swing side during APA during gait initiation was found to be asymmetrical when choosing the leg in response to an external cue.
authors.affiliation: School of Health and Human Services, Osaka Prefecture University, Habikino city, Osaka, Japan.
authors.forename: Koichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hiraoka
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Compremensive Rehabilitation, Osaka Prefecture University, Habikino city, Osaka, Japan.
authors.forename: Ryota
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hatanaka
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Compremensive Rehabilitation, Osaka Prefecture University, Habikino city, Osaka, Japan.
authors.forename: Yasutaka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nikaido
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Compremensive Rehabilitation, Osaka Prefecture University, Habikino city, Osaka, Japan.
authors.forename: Yasutomo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jono
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Compremensive Rehabilitation, Osaka Prefecture University, Habikino city, Osaka, Japan.
authors.forename: Yoshifumi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nomura
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Compremensive Rehabilitation, Osaka Prefecture University, Habikino city, Osaka, Japan.
authors.forename: Keisuke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tani
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Compremensive Rehabilitation, Osaka Prefecture University, Habikino city, Osaka, Japan.
authors.forename: Yuta
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chujo
keywords: anticipatory postural adjustment; asymmetry; center of pressure; gait initiation