Visual Flow Affects Walking Kinetics during Split-belt Adaptation
Advisor Information
Mukul Mukherjee
Location
Milo Bail Student Center Ballroom
Presentation Type
Poster
Start Date
8-3-2013 1:00 PM
End Date
8-3-2013 4:00 PM
Abstract
The effect of visual flow during walking is important because it interacts with the proprioception to maintain stability. The visual-motor perception is even more profound as it may override the contribution from proprioception and shift the control of the central nervous system (CNS) to feed forward. Studies showed that visual flow can affect the walking kinematics. However, its effects on kinetics and the effects of walking adaptations have not been studied. We studied how visual flow and adaptations affect walking kinetics. Specifically, participants walked on a split-belt treadmill with and without visual flow simulating normal walking in a corridor. The speeds of the split belt were 1.5m/s and 0.5m/s, respectively, and the visual flow emulated the slower belt. The effect of the phases during walking adaption was set in 5 conditions (pre-split, early-split, catch, late-split, post-split). Ten healthy young participants (age=25.5±5 years, mean±std, 5 males) attended data collection during which ground reaction forces (GRFs) were recorded. We found that there were significant main effects of both visual flow and adaption phases on the magnitude of the first peak of vertical GRF. For the 2nd peak GRF, only the effect of the adaptation phase was significant. For timing there was significant interactions on the loading duration of the 1st peak of vertical GRF. The results indicate that rather than timing visual flow has an effect on the magnitude of the kinetics during walking. They also indicate that visual-motor perception and coordination seem to control different aspects of walking kinetics.
Visual Flow Affects Walking Kinetics during Split-belt Adaptation
Milo Bail Student Center Ballroom
The effect of visual flow during walking is important because it interacts with the proprioception to maintain stability. The visual-motor perception is even more profound as it may override the contribution from proprioception and shift the control of the central nervous system (CNS) to feed forward. Studies showed that visual flow can affect the walking kinematics. However, its effects on kinetics and the effects of walking adaptations have not been studied. We studied how visual flow and adaptations affect walking kinetics. Specifically, participants walked on a split-belt treadmill with and without visual flow simulating normal walking in a corridor. The speeds of the split belt were 1.5m/s and 0.5m/s, respectively, and the visual flow emulated the slower belt. The effect of the phases during walking adaption was set in 5 conditions (pre-split, early-split, catch, late-split, post-split). Ten healthy young participants (age=25.5±5 years, mean±std, 5 males) attended data collection during which ground reaction forces (GRFs) were recorded. We found that there were significant main effects of both visual flow and adaption phases on the magnitude of the first peak of vertical GRF. For the 2nd peak GRF, only the effect of the adaptation phase was significant. For timing there was significant interactions on the loading duration of the 1st peak of vertical GRF. The results indicate that rather than timing visual flow has an effect on the magnitude of the kinetics during walking. They also indicate that visual-motor perception and coordination seem to control different aspects of walking kinetics.