Newborn babies can make irregular stepping motions, although it will take many months, and many falls, before those turn into walking. Even the bipedally mobile toddler does not walk like an adult. Dominici et al. (p. 997; see the Perspective by Grillner) analyzed how the patterns of human walking change with development. Walking was analyzed and categorized to be the result of a discrete set of neuromuscular components. The neonate has some of these components, which are similar to walking patterns in other mammals. The toddler has added two more components onto the basic set. And the adult has refined the components for optimal walking.
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