Distracting visuospatial attention while approaching an obstacle reduces the toe-obstacle clearance

Obstacle crossing during walking requires visuospatial attention to identify the obstacle, so that individuals can integrate visual and somatosensory information for raising the foot with appropriate height and timing without being tripped. However, the interaction between control of foot trajectory...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Experimental brain research 2015-04, Vol.233 (4), p.1137-1144
Main Authors: Lo, On-Yee, van Donkelaar, Paul, Chou, Li-Shan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Attention - physiology
Biomechanical Phenomena
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Biomedicine
Female
Gait
Humans
Locomotion - physiology
Male
Neurology
Neuromuscular diseases
Neurosciences
Physiological aspects
Psychomotor Performance - physiology
Research Article
Somatosensory system
Space Perception - physiology
Toes
Visual acuity
Walking
Young Adult
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Summary:Obstacle crossing during walking requires visuospatial attention to identify the obstacle, so that individuals can integrate visual and somatosensory information for raising the foot with appropriate height and timing without being tripped. However, the interaction between control of foot trajectory and orientation of visuospatial attention during obstacle crossing is complicated and remains unclear. This study probed where attention is directed when approaching and stepping over an obstacle during gait and examined how the presence of the obstacle affects the distribution of attention during walking. Eleven young healthy adults performed a visuospatial attention task while standing (Stand), crossing over an obstacle placed either before (ObsBefore) or after (ObsAfter) the visual target, or crossing without the visual target (ObsOnly). Toe-obstacle clearance was reduced for the trailing leg in the ObsAfter condition but remained the same for the ObsBefore and ObsOnly conditions. In addition, the accuracy rate of the visuospatial attention task tended to be higher at the locations closer to the obstacle. Taken together, these results demonstrate that visuospatial attention and the processes underlying obstacle crossing during locomotion interact in both a spatially and temporally dependent manner.
ISSN:0014-4819
1432-1106
DOI:10.1007/s00221-014-4189-1