Human gait - From cradle to stars

Human gait - From cradle to stars

Dr Irene Di Giulio

Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine
King's College London

All welcome!

Walking is a common task for most humans. It is assumed that human gait is simple and humans rarely realise the demands of this task. Humans usually become aware of its complexity when things go wrong.

Healthy human gait is developed over many months and the way humans walk in the environment is extremely specialised and refined.

In this talk, we will overview the development of human gait. We will review how humans learn to walk, and the role of the environment in shaping the way we walk.

We will also reflect on the challenges to gait as we age, become ill, or explore new (extreme) environments.

Finally, we will discuss what environmental, technological and physiological changes can be considered to improve human gait.