American journal of physical medicine & rehabilitation
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Am J Phys Med Rehabil · May 2005
Speed-dependent deviations from a straight-ahead path during forward locomotion in healthy individuals.
In subjects with unilateral vestibular malfunction, running is associated with less departure from the straight-ahead path than walking. The purpose of this study was to broaden the scope of these observations by investigating whether they can be generalized to healthy subjects. ⋯ In healthy subjects, variation in foot placement between the acts of walking and running seem to account for the enhanced path integration found during running. Perhaps consideration of these findings is also relevant for the interpretation of speed-dependent path integration in subjects receiving abnormal unilateral vestibular inputs.