Journal of biomechanics
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Several efforts have been made to study gait stability using measures derived from nonlinear time-series analysis. The maximum finite time Lyapunov exponent (lambda(max)) quantifies how a system responds to an infinitesimally small perturbation. Recent studies suggested that slow walking leads to lower lambda(max) values, and thus is more stable than fast walking, but these studies suffer from methodological limitations. ⋯ Moreover, positive correlations between lambda(S) and MeanSD were found for all directions, while lambda(L-stride) and MeanSD were correlated negatively in the AP direction. The different effects of walking speed on lambda(S-stride) and lambda(L-stride) for the different planes suggest that slow walking is not necessarily more stable than fast walking. The absence of a consistent pattern of correlations between lambda(L-stride) and MeanSD over the three directions suggests that variability and stability reflect, at least to a degree, different properties of the dynamics of walking.