Stephen D. Perry

TL;DR: Three specific direction- and phase-dependent roles for the plantar cutaneous afferents are suggested: sensing posterior stability limits during initiation of backward steps, sensing and controlling heel-contact and subsequent weight transfer during termination of forward steps, and maintaining stability during the prolonged swing phase of lateral crossover steps.

TL;DR: Older adults have significant plantar-surface insensitivity as compared to young adults and have an onset of advanced insensitivity in the seventh decade of life.

TL;DR: Evidence is provided that mechanical facilitation of sensation from the boundaries of the plantar surface of the foot can improve the efficacy of certain types of stabilizing reactions evoked by unpredictable postural perturbation.

TL;DR: The results clearly demonstrate that compensatory stepping responses to non-sagittal perturbations are strongly influenced by biomechanical constraints and affordances that do not affect the forward and backward stepping behaviour that has been studied traditionally.

TL;DR: The results demonstrated that visual information about self-motion and object- motion and sensation from the plantar surface of the foot play phase-specific roles in the control of COM during gait termination.