Characterizing changes in muscle coordination in response to constrained motions during gait

Abnormal coordination is associated with greater post-stroke impairment. However, it is unclear whether these coordination patterns emerge as a compensation to kinematic constraints such as increased muscle tone. In this work, we characterized the muscle coordination patterns in 14 healthy individuals following restricted knee kinematics imitating the knee joint of those with post-stroke gait. We used non-negative matrix factorization to estimate the number of motor modules active during the gait cycle. Preliminary analysis shows a reduction in number of muscle modules with a reduction in walking speed and with knee restriction. These results would suggest that changes in coordination patters following stroke can emerge from altered mechanics.