We measured variability of foot placement during gait to test whether lateral balance must be actively controlled against dynamic
instability. The hypothesis was developed using a simple dynamical model that can walk down a slight incline with a periodic gait
resembling that of humans. This gait is entirely passive except that it requires active control for a single unstable mode, con"ned
mainly to lateral motion. An especially e$cient means of controlling this instability is to adjust lateral foot placement. We
hypothesized that similar active feedback control is performed by humans, with fore-aft dynamics stabilized either passively or by very
low-level control. The model predicts that uncertainty within the active feedback loop should result in variability in foot placement
that is larger laterally than fore-aft. In addition, loss of sensory information such as by closing the eyes should result in larger increases
in lateral variability. The control model also predicts a slight coupling between step width and length. We tested 15 young normal
human subjects and found that lateral variability was 79% larger than fore-aft variability with eyes open, and a larger increase in
lateral variability (53% vs. 21%) with eyes closed, consistent with the model's predictions. We also found that the coupling between
lateral and fore-aft foot placements was consistent with a value of 0.13 predicted by the control model. Our results imply that humans
may harness passive dynamic properties of the limbs in the sagittal plane, but must provide signi"cant active control in order to
stabilize lateral motion. ( 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved