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Vision Affects Gait Speed but not Patterns of Muscle Activation During Inclined Walking—A Virtual Reality Study

While walking, our locomotion is affected by and adapts to the environment based on vision- and body-based (vestibular and proprioception) cues. When transitioning to downhill walking, we modulate gait by braking to avoid uncontrolled acceleration, and when transitioning to uphill walking, we exert...

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Autores principales: Benady, Amit, Zadik, Sean, Ben-Gal, Oran, Cano Porras, Desiderio, Wenkert, Atalia, Gilaie-Dotan, Sharon, Plotnik, Meir
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8062981/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33898402
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2021.632594
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author Benady, Amit
Zadik, Sean
Ben-Gal, Oran
Cano Porras, Desiderio
Wenkert, Atalia
Gilaie-Dotan, Sharon
Plotnik, Meir
author_facet Benady, Amit
Zadik, Sean
Ben-Gal, Oran
Cano Porras, Desiderio
Wenkert, Atalia
Gilaie-Dotan, Sharon
Plotnik, Meir
author_sort Benady, Amit
collection PubMed
description While walking, our locomotion is affected by and adapts to the environment based on vision- and body-based (vestibular and proprioception) cues. When transitioning to downhill walking, we modulate gait by braking to avoid uncontrolled acceleration, and when transitioning to uphill walking, we exert effort to avoid deceleration. In this study, we aimed to measure the influence of visual inputs on this behavior and on muscle activation. Specifically, we aimed to explore whether the gait speed modulations triggered by mere visual cues after transitioning to virtually inclined surface walking are accompanied by changes in muscle activation patterns typical to those triggered by veridical (gravitational) surface inclination transitions. We used an immersive virtual reality system equipped with a self-paced treadmill and projected visual scenes that allowed us to modulate physical–visual inclination congruence parametrically. Gait speed and leg muscle electromyography were measured in 12 healthy young adults. In addition, the magnitude of subjective visual verticality misperception (SVV) was measured by the rod and frame test. During virtual (non-veridical) inclination transitions, vision modulated gait speed by (i) slowing down to counteract the excepted gravitational “boost” in virtual downhill inclinations and (ii) speeding up to counteract the expected gravity resistance in virtual uphill inclinations. These gait speed modulations were reflected in muscle activation intensity changes and associated with SVV misperception. However, temporal patterns of muscle activation were not affected by virtual (visual) inclination transitions. Our results delineate the contribution of vision to locomotion and may lead to enhanced rehabilitation strategies for neurological disorders affecting movement.
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spelling pubmed-80629812021-04-24 Vision Affects Gait Speed but not Patterns of Muscle Activation During Inclined Walking—A Virtual Reality Study Benady, Amit Zadik, Sean Ben-Gal, Oran Cano Porras, Desiderio Wenkert, Atalia Gilaie-Dotan, Sharon Plotnik, Meir Front Bioeng Biotechnol Bioengineering and Biotechnology While walking, our locomotion is affected by and adapts to the environment based on vision- and body-based (vestibular and proprioception) cues. When transitioning to downhill walking, we modulate gait by braking to avoid uncontrolled acceleration, and when transitioning to uphill walking, we exert effort to avoid deceleration. In this study, we aimed to measure the influence of visual inputs on this behavior and on muscle activation. Specifically, we aimed to explore whether the gait speed modulations triggered by mere visual cues after transitioning to virtually inclined surface walking are accompanied by changes in muscle activation patterns typical to those triggered by veridical (gravitational) surface inclination transitions. We used an immersive virtual reality system equipped with a self-paced treadmill and projected visual scenes that allowed us to modulate physical–visual inclination congruence parametrically. Gait speed and leg muscle electromyography were measured in 12 healthy young adults. In addition, the magnitude of subjective visual verticality misperception (SVV) was measured by the rod and frame test. During virtual (non-veridical) inclination transitions, vision modulated gait speed by (i) slowing down to counteract the excepted gravitational “boost” in virtual downhill inclinations and (ii) speeding up to counteract the expected gravity resistance in virtual uphill inclinations. These gait speed modulations were reflected in muscle activation intensity changes and associated with SVV misperception. However, temporal patterns of muscle activation were not affected by virtual (visual) inclination transitions. Our results delineate the contribution of vision to locomotion and may lead to enhanced rehabilitation strategies for neurological disorders affecting movement. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-04-09 /pmc/articles/PMC8062981/ /pubmed/33898402 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2021.632594 Text en Copyright © 2021 Benady, Zadik, Ben-Gal, Cano Porras, Wenkert, Gilaie-Dotan and Plotnik. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Bioengineering and Biotechnology
Benady, Amit
Zadik, Sean
Ben-Gal, Oran
Cano Porras, Desiderio
Wenkert, Atalia
Gilaie-Dotan, Sharon
Plotnik, Meir
Vision Affects Gait Speed but not Patterns of Muscle Activation During Inclined Walking—A Virtual Reality Study
title Vision Affects Gait Speed but not Patterns of Muscle Activation During Inclined Walking—A Virtual Reality Study
title_full Vision Affects Gait Speed but not Patterns of Muscle Activation During Inclined Walking—A Virtual Reality Study
title_fullStr Vision Affects Gait Speed but not Patterns of Muscle Activation During Inclined Walking—A Virtual Reality Study
title_full_unstemmed Vision Affects Gait Speed but not Patterns of Muscle Activation During Inclined Walking—A Virtual Reality Study
title_short Vision Affects Gait Speed but not Patterns of Muscle Activation During Inclined Walking—A Virtual Reality Study
title_sort vision affects gait speed but not patterns of muscle activation during inclined walking—a virtual reality study
topic Bioengineering and Biotechnology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8062981/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33898402
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2021.632594
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