Previous research in the field has involved subjects who imagine themselves walking or who walk on treadmills, rather than the real-world conditions used for this study, said Justin A. Brantley, a doctoral student in the UH Cullen College of Engineering and co-first author on a paper describing the work, published Nov. 30 in PLOS ONE. “The overarching theme is, how can we understand what is happening during locomotion in natural complex settings?” he said.
People once believed walking involved only the spinal cord and muscular system. “It looks so easy to walk,” said Jose Luis Contreras-Vidal, Cullen University Professor of electrical and computer engineering at UH and senior author of the paper. “But the reality is different.”