Affiliation:
1. Department of Applied Physiology and Kinesiology, College of Health and Human Performance, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States
2. School of Kinesiology, College of Education, Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama, United States
Abstract
Split-belt treadmills have become an increasingly popular means of quantifying ambulation adaptability. Multiple sensory feedback mechanisms, including vision, contribute to task execution and adaptation success. No studies have yet explored visual feedback effects on locomotor adaptability across a spectrum of available visual information. In this study, we sought to better understand the effects of visual information on locomotor adaptation and retention by directly comparing incremental levels of visual occlusion. Sixty healthy young adults completed a split-belt adaptation protocol, including a baseline, asymmetric walking condition (adapt), a symmetric walking condition (de-adapt), and another asymmetric walking condition (re-adapt). We randomly assigned participants into conditions with varied visual occlusion (i.e., complete and lower visual field occlusion, or normal vision). We captured kinematic data, and outcome measures included magnitude of asymmetry, spatial and temporal contributions to step length asymmetry, variability of the final adapted pattern, and magnitude of adaptation. We used repeated measures and four-way MANOVAs to examine the influence of visual occlusion and walking condition. Participants with complete, compared to lower visual field visual occlusion displayed less consistency in their walking pattern, evident via increased step length standard deviation ( p = .007, d = 0.89), and compared to normal vision groups ( p = .003 d = 0.81). We found no other group differences, indicating that varying levels of visual occlusion did not significantly affect locomotor adaptation or retention. This study offers insight into the role vision plays in locomotor adaptation and retention with clinical utility for improving variability in step control.
Funder
University of Florida Undergraduate Scholars program
Subject
Sensory Systems,Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Cited by
1 articles.
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