Rhythmic auditory stimulation during gait adaptation enhances learning aftereffects and savings by reducing common neural drives to lower limb muscles.

Rhythmic auditory stimulation (RAS) improves gait symmetry in neurological patients with asymmetric gait patterns. However, whether RAS can accelerate gait adaptation remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate whether RAS during gait adaptation can enhance learning aftereffects and savings of gait symmetries. Furthermore, we investigated the differences in the coherence of paired surface electromyographic (EMG) recordings during gait adaptation between with and without RAS. Nineteen healthy young adults were subjected to continuous treadmill gait with swing phase perturbation (adaptation period) with or without RAS (RAS or no-RAS condition) for 5 or 10 min (short- or long-time condition), without the perturbation for 5 min (de-adaptation period), and with the perturbation for another 5 min (re-adaptation period). Swing phase and step length symmetries were significantly greater in the RAS conditions than in the no-RAS conditions during the adaptation period. Learning aftereffects and savings of gait symmetries were significantly greater in the RAS conditions than in the no-RAS conditions in the early de-adaptation and re-adaptation periods, respectively. There were no significant differences in savings in the early re-adaptation period between the short- and long-time conditions in the RAS condition. EMG-EMG coherence in the rectus femoris muscle in the β band (15-35 Hz) on the perturbed side was significantly lower during the early adaptation period in the RAS than in the no-RAS conditions. Therefore, RAS may enhance learning efficiency by reducing common neural drives from a cortical structure during gait adaptation, which could induce high savings of a learned gait pattern, even within short-time periods. NEW & NOTEWORTHY RAS during gait adaptation against swing phase perturbation enhances learning aftereffects and savings of gait symmetries. EMG-EMG coherence in the rectus femoris muscle in the β band on the perturbed side during the swing phase was significantly lower in the RAS than in the no-RAS conditions during the early adaptation period. These results support the application of RAS as external feedback to improve gait symmetry during gait adaptation in the rehabilitation of neurological patients.