No / The importance of peripheral visual cues in the control of minimum-foot-clearance during overground
locomotion on a clear path was investigated. Eleven subjects walked at their natural speed whilst
wearing goggles providing four different visual conditions: upper occlusion, lower occlusion,
circumferential–peripheral occlusion and full vision. Results showed that under circumferential–
peripheral occlusion, subjects were more cautious and increased minimum-foot-clearance and
decreased walking speed and step length. The minimum-foot-clearance increase can be interpreted
as a motor control strategy aiming to safely clear the ground when online visual exproprioceptive cues
from the body are not available. The lack of minimum-foot-clearance increase in lower occlusion
suggests that the view of a clear pathway from beyond two steps combined with visual exproprioception
and optic flow in the upper field were adequate to guide gait. A suggested accompanying safety strategy
of reducing the amount of variability of minimum-foot-clearance under circumferential–peripheral
occlusion conditions was not found, likely due to the lack of online visual exproprioceptive cues provided
by the peripheral visual field for fine-tuning foot trajectory.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BRADFORD/oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/15845 |
| Date | 2009 July 1922 |
| Creators | Graci, Valentina, Elliott, David, Buckley, John |
| Source Sets | Bradford Scholars |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Article, No full-text in the repository |
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