When aiming at assessing motor control development, natural walking (NW), and tandem walking (TW) are two locomotor tasks that allow analyzing different characteristics of motor control performance. NW is the reference locomotor task, expected to become more and more automatic with age. TW is a nonparadigmatic task used in clinics to highlight eventual impairments and to evaluate how a child deals with a new challenging motor experience. This work aims at investigating motor development in school-aged children, by assessing quantitatively their performance during TW and NW. Eighty children (6–10 years) participated in the study. Trunk acceleration data and nonlinear measures (recurrence quantification analysis (RQA), and multiscale entropy (MSE)) were used to characterize trunk postural control and motor complexity. The results were analyzed with respect to age and standard clinical assessment of TW (number of correct consecutive steps), by means of Spearman correlation coefficients. RQA and MSE allowed highlighting age-related changes in both postural control of the trunk and motor complexity, while classic standard assessment of TW resulted uniformly distributed in the different age groups. The present results suggest this quantitative approach as relevant when assessing the motor development in schoolchildren and complementary to standard clinical tests.
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
November 2018
Research-Article
Nonlinear Analysis of Human Movement Dynamics Offers New Insights in the Development of Motor Control During Childhood
Maria Cristina Bisi,
Maria Cristina Bisi
Department of Electrical, Electronic and
Information Engineering “Guglielmo Marconi,”
University of Bologna,
Viale Risorgimento 2,
Bologna 40126, Italy
e-mail: mariacristina.bisi@unibo.it
Information Engineering “Guglielmo Marconi,”
University of Bologna,
Viale Risorgimento 2,
Bologna 40126, Italy
e-mail: mariacristina.bisi@unibo.it
Search for other works by this author on:
Paola Tamburini,
Paola Tamburini
Department of Electrical, Electronic and
Information Engineering “Guglielmo Marconi,”
University of Bologna,
Viale Risorgimento 2,
Bologna 40126, Italy
Information Engineering “Guglielmo Marconi,”
University of Bologna,
Viale Risorgimento 2,
Bologna 40126, Italy
Search for other works by this author on:
Giulia Pacini Panebianco,
Giulia Pacini Panebianco
Department of Electrical, Electronic and
Information Engineering “Guglielmo Marconi,”
University of Bologna,
Viale Risorgimento 2,
Bologna 40126, Italy
Information Engineering “Guglielmo Marconi,”
University of Bologna,
Viale Risorgimento 2,
Bologna 40126, Italy
Search for other works by this author on:
Rita Stagni
Rita Stagni
Department of Electrical, Electronic and
Information Engineering “Guglielmo Marconi,”
University of Bologna,
Viale Risorgimento 2,
Bologna 40126, Italy
Information Engineering “Guglielmo Marconi,”
University of Bologna,
Viale Risorgimento 2,
Bologna 40126, Italy
Search for other works by this author on:
Maria Cristina Bisi
Department of Electrical, Electronic and
Information Engineering “Guglielmo Marconi,”
University of Bologna,
Viale Risorgimento 2,
Bologna 40126, Italy
e-mail: mariacristina.bisi@unibo.it
Information Engineering “Guglielmo Marconi,”
University of Bologna,
Viale Risorgimento 2,
Bologna 40126, Italy
e-mail: mariacristina.bisi@unibo.it
Paola Tamburini
Department of Electrical, Electronic and
Information Engineering “Guglielmo Marconi,”
University of Bologna,
Viale Risorgimento 2,
Bologna 40126, Italy
Information Engineering “Guglielmo Marconi,”
University of Bologna,
Viale Risorgimento 2,
Bologna 40126, Italy
Giulia Pacini Panebianco
Department of Electrical, Electronic and
Information Engineering “Guglielmo Marconi,”
University of Bologna,
Viale Risorgimento 2,
Bologna 40126, Italy
Information Engineering “Guglielmo Marconi,”
University of Bologna,
Viale Risorgimento 2,
Bologna 40126, Italy
Rita Stagni
Department of Electrical, Electronic and
Information Engineering “Guglielmo Marconi,”
University of Bologna,
Viale Risorgimento 2,
Bologna 40126, Italy
Information Engineering “Guglielmo Marconi,”
University of Bologna,
Viale Risorgimento 2,
Bologna 40126, Italy
1Corresponding author.
Manuscript received January 25, 2018; final manuscript received July 13, 2018; published online August 20, 2018. Assoc. Editor: Giuseppe Vairo.
J Biomech Eng. Nov 2018, 140(11): 111002 (5 pages)
Published Online: August 20, 2018
Article history
Received:
January 25, 2018
Revised:
July 13, 2018
Citation
Bisi, M. C., Tamburini, P., Panebianco, G. P., and Stagni, R. (August 20, 2018). "Nonlinear Analysis of Human Movement Dynamics Offers New Insights in the Development of Motor Control During Childhood." ASME. J Biomech Eng. November 2018; 140(11): 111002. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4040939
Download citation file:
Get Email Alerts
Related Articles
The Effects of Helmet Weight on Hybrid III Head and Neck Responses by Comparing Unhelmeted and Helmeted Impacts
J Biomech Eng (October,2016)
2016 Editors' Choice Papers
J Biomech Eng (February,2017)
Society Awards 2016
J Biomech Eng (February,2017)
ANNUAL SPECIAL ISSUE “Biomechanical Engineering: Year in Review”
J Biomech Eng (February,2017)
Related Proceedings Papers
Related Chapters
Classifying EEG-Based Motor Imagery Tasks by Means of Wavelet Packet and Sample Entropy
International Conference on Instrumentation, Measurement, Circuits and Systems (ICIMCS 2011)
Investigation of the Dynamic Characteristics of Cardio-Respiratory Response OT Treadmill Running Exercise for Interval Training
International Conference on Measurement and Control Engineering 2nd (ICMCE 2011)
Simulation of Velocity Control of Linear Switched Reluctance Motor
International Conference on Computer Engineering and Technology, 3rd (ICCET 2011)