Humans utilize self-generated auditory information, such as footfall sounds, during walking. This study investigated the effects of temporal mismatches between movement and auditory feedback by presenting delayed playback of participants’ own footfall sounds during locomotion. Participants walked while listening to delayed footfall sounds recorded from microphones attached to both feet and replayed through headphones. Whole-body kinematics were measured using an inertial motion-capture system (Xsens MVN Awinda). Seven delay conditions were applied (0, 250, 500, 750, 1000, 1250, and 1500 ms). Gait parameters were analyzed over a 6.5-m measurement section following a 3.0-m lead-in. No consistent monotonic changes in walking speed, cadence, or step length were observed with increasing delay. Instead, both the magnitude and direction of changes varied across individuals. Under conditions in which walking speed increased, two distinct patterns emerged: speed increases driven primarily by cadence and those driven primarily by step length. These findings indicate that delayed self-generated sounds do not merely inhibit movement but modulate gait control through compensatory adjustments to temporal mismatches between action and sensory feedback.
KAWASAKI et al. (Thu,) studied this question.