Different modulation of oscillatory common neural drives to ankle muscles during abrupt and gradual gait adaptations

Different neural contributions to motor learning might be involved when different error sizes of perturbation are introduced. Although the corticospinal drive contributes to abrupt gait adaptation processes, no studies have investigated whether cortical involvement during gait differs between perturbations applied abruptly and gradually. This study aimed to investigate the differences in oscillatory common neural drives to ankle muscles during gait between abrupt and gradual adaptations, using coherence analyses of paired surface electromyographic (EMG) recordings. Sixteen healthy young adults performed the treadmill gait with perturbation resisting forward movement of the swing leg for 10 min under two conditions: abrupt (a large perturbation from the beginning of the adaptation period) and gradual (a series of small perturbations that gradually increased). Swing phase duration and step length showed significantly greater asymmetry in the abrupt condition than in the gradual condition in the early adaptation period ( p < 0.01), despite no significant differences in gait symmetries between the two conditions in the early post-adaptation period. EMG–EMG coherence calculated from the tibialis anterior muscle in the beta band (15–35 Hz) on the perturbed side was significantly higher in the early adaptation period in the abrupt condition ( p < 0.05), but not in the gradual condition. There were significant relationships between changes in temporal gait symmetry and EMG–EMG coherence during the different adaptation periods between the two conditions ( p < 0.05). The abrupt large perturbation seems to require a cortical involvement, whereas a gradual adaptation with small gait asymmetry requires no modulation of cortical involvement.