THE REGULATION OF LEG STIFFNESS AND EMG ACTIVITIES ON PERSON WITH VISUAL IMPAIRED DURING STEP-DOWN WALKING

Abstract

The purpose of present study was to evaluate leg muscular regulation and neuromuscular activation by investigating the stiffness and EMG amplitude of normal vision students and visually impaired students. 10 normal vision (age: 24.3±20 years; height: 171.5±4.6cm; mass: 65.9±8.0kg) and 10 visually impaired students (age: 23.2±2.4 years; height: 163.4±9.6cm; mass: 62.8±15.0kg) were served as subjects. AMTI force platform (1200 Hz), Peak Performance motion analysis system (60Hz) and Biovision EMG system were used synchronously to record the ground reaction force, the kinematic parameters and EMG signals of lower extremity during the subjects stepped down from height 20, 30 and 40cm. The results revealed that the regulation of neuromuscular system of the impaired is less efficient compared to the normal one because of lower muscle stiffness and EMG activity.