Background

Autism spectrum disorder, a neurodevelopmental disorder, is difficult to characterize from a gait biomechanics perspective, possibly due to increased inter and intra-individual variability. Previous research illustrates increased gait variability in young children with autism, but assessments in older adolescents or at varying speeds are unavailable. The purpose of this study was to determine if adolescents with autism demonstrate increased intra-limb and inter-limb coordination variability during walking compared to age, sex, and body mass index matched controls.

Methods

Seventeen adolescents with autism (age 13–18 years) and seventeen matched controls performed walking at two matched speeds: self-selected of adolescents with autism and at 1.3 m/s. Modified vector coding was used to determine the patterns of movement for foot-shank, left/right thigh, and contralateral thigh-arm coupling. Coordination variability, a measure of cycle-to-cycle variability, was determined across the full stride. Mixed-model analyses of variance were used to determine if group by speed interactions and/or main effects existed for coordination variability.

Findings

A significant interaction existed for foot-shank variability (p = 0.039). Adolescents with autism had greater variability at self-selected speeds (p = 0.018), but not at 1.3 m/s (p = 0.593) compared to controls. Thigh-thigh coordination was greater for adolescents with ASD compared to controls at both speeds (p = 0.021). Variability was decreased at 1.3 m/s for both foot-shank (p = 0.016) and thigh-thigh (p = 0.021) coupling.

Interpretation

This study illustrates that adolescents with autism perform walking with increased coordination variability at both proximal and distal segments. Thus, it is likely intra-individual variability drives the disparity of movement patterns in this population.

中文翻译：

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自闭症谱系障碍青少年行走时肢体间和肢体内协调变异性

背景

自闭症谱系障碍是一种神经发育障碍，很难从步态生物力学的角度来表征，这可能是由于个体间和个体间的变异性增加。先前的研究表明自闭症幼儿的步态变异性增加，但无法对年龄较大的青少年或以不同的速度进行评估。本研究的目的是确定与年龄、性别和体重指数匹配的对照组相比，自闭症青少年在行走过程中是否表现出肢体内和肢体间协调变异性增加。

方法

17 名自闭症青少年（13-18 岁）和 17 名匹配的对照以两种匹配的速度行走：自闭症青少年的自我选择和 1.3 m/s。修改后的矢量编码用于确定脚-小腿、左/右大腿和对侧大腿-手臂耦合的运动模式。协调变异性是一种衡量周期间变异性的方法，它是在整个跨步中确定的。混合模型方差分析用于确定是否存在按速度相互作用和/或主效应对协调变异性的分组。

发现

足柄变异性存在显着的相互作用（p  = 0.039）。与对照组相比，患有自闭症的青少年在自我选择的速度 ( p  = 0.018) 下具有更大的可变性，但在 1.3 m/s ( p  = 0.593) 下则没有。与两种速度下的对照组相比，患有 ASD 的青少年的大腿-大腿协调性更强（p  = 0.021）。脚-小腿 ( p  = 0.016) 和大腿-大腿 (p = 0.021) 耦合的变异性以 1.3 m/s 的速度降低。

解释

这项研究表明，患有自闭症的青少年在行走时近端和远端节段的协调变异性增加。因此，很可能是个体内的变异性导致了该人群中运动模式的差异。