Central Control of Visually Guided Walking

Time
5 July 2018, 14:00

Place
Store Auditorium, Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, Nørre Allé 53, 2200 Copenhagen

Opponents
Professor Bente Kiens (chair), Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Professor Bernard Conway University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, United Kingdom

Professor Thomas Sinkjær, Aalborg University, Denmark.

Supervisor
Associate professor Jesper Lundbye-Jensen, Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Co supervisor
Professor Jens Bo Nielsen, Department of Neuroscience, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

About the thesis
In the present thesis the role of the corticospinal tract in visually guided walking was investigated.

It was investigated if a novel locomotor sequence learning task can be integrated with normal walking. After this the role of the corticospinal control of the plantar flexors was investigated. finally the central control of visually guided walking was investigated using the locomotor task and coherence analysis between the motor cortex and the muscles in the lower leg.

It was shown that it is possible to integrate a novel locomotor sequence with normal walking and that there is increased  activity in the corticospinal tract when comparing visually guided walking to normal walking.

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