# Influence of haptic Sensory Input through Different Kinds of Clothing on Gait Performance
## 4 Discussion  
The present study revealed that although the walking speed in the normal and tandem gaits significantly increased while wearing unbifurcated draped clothing around the leg, it was not observed in the case of wearing tracksuit bottoms. In addition, the misseteps during tandem gait were significantly reduced by wearing a draped cloth. With regard to the subjective gait sensation, the participants who wore a draped cloth found it easier to walk as compared with those who wore the tracksuit bottoms. A previous review reported that the effect of light touch on gait speed may depend on the type of touching tool used [14]. Although the walking time in the normal and tandem gaits in the present study was significantly shorter while wearing DC, it was not observed in the case of wearing TS. As an increase in error means that the straight-line distance increases, the actual walking distances were slightly longer than 11 m in the present study. However, we found no significant differences in error during both normal and tandem gaits or pre and post wearing of clothing. Therefore, almost all changes in gait time were presumed to be affected by wearing DC. This result is consistent with that of a previous study, which involved a more challenging gait task, wherein the gait time during tandem gait on a narrow board was shortened by wearing fluttering clothing [17]. Although the gait time and number of steps during the normal gait in the pilot experiment were significantly increased with the blindfold than without the blindfold, normal and tandem gait tasks might not be significantly difficult for young healthy adults, as in the present study. The effect size in the previous study was large (\(d=1.31\)) [17], which was larger than that on tandem gait (\(d=0.80\)) or normal gait (\(d=0.39\)) in the present study. The effect of light touch on postural sway during standing has been reported to be relatively more effective during a relatively difficult postural task, i.e., individual is standing on a pneumatic balance disk [7], foam rubber mat [18], or under the reduced plantar sensitivity condition [19]. Therefore, these results suggest that the effectiveness of light touch became larger, accompanied by the difficulty of the gait task. Misseteps during tandem gait were significantly reduced by wearing DC. During tandem gait, the participants should control their postural balance in a narrower base surface than that during normal gait. When a participant lost balance, the center of foot pressure greatly deviated from the basal plane. Subsequently, the basal plane area was enlarged by a misstep (the step deviated from the tandem line) to maintain balance. Light touch is thought to enhance an individual's perception of body orientation [10], making it easier to control balance. In fact, the participants who wore DC found it easier to walk as compared with those who wore TS, as measured by subjective gait sensation. Figure 2: Effect of the type of clothing worn on subjective gait sensation during the tandem gait test. A range from 0 mm (able to walk easily, similar to the task with eyes open in the pilot experiment) to 100 mm (difficult to keep tandem while standing upright). Values are expressed as mean \(\pm\) standard error of the mean. *: \(p<0.05\). A previous study also reported that when participants had more improved gait performance when wearing fluttering clothing, they also felt that it was easier to walk [17]. This result suggests that because wearing a DC allows individuals to better control balance through the enhancement of the perception of body orientation, missteps were decreased. Therefore, although such a tandem gait will not be performed in daily living, it may lead to enhanced postural stability depending on the kind of garment worn in situations where better balance ability is required during human movement, such as on an unstable surface and high and dark places.