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Binocular vision and the control of foot placement during walking in natural terrain

Coordination between visual and motor processes is critical for the selection of stable footholds when walking in uneven terrains. While recent work (Matthis et al. in Curr Biol 8(28):1224–1233, 2018) demonstrates a tight link between gaze (visual) and gait (motor), it remains unclear which aspects...

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Autores principales: Bonnen, Kathryn, Matthis, Jonathan S., Gibaldi, Agostino, Banks, Martin S., Levi, Dennis M., Hayhoe, Mary
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8536664/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34686759
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-99846-0
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author Bonnen, Kathryn
Matthis, Jonathan S.
Gibaldi, Agostino
Banks, Martin S.
Levi, Dennis M.
Hayhoe, Mary
author_facet Bonnen, Kathryn
Matthis, Jonathan S.
Gibaldi, Agostino
Banks, Martin S.
Levi, Dennis M.
Hayhoe, Mary
author_sort Bonnen, Kathryn
collection PubMed
description Coordination between visual and motor processes is critical for the selection of stable footholds when walking in uneven terrains. While recent work (Matthis et al. in Curr Biol 8(28):1224–1233, 2018) demonstrates a tight link between gaze (visual) and gait (motor), it remains unclear which aspects of visual information play a role in this visuomotor control loop, and how the loss of this information affects that relationship. Here we examine the role of binocular information in the visuomotor control of walking over complex terrain. We recorded eye and body movements while normally-sighted participants walked over terrains of varying difficulty, with intact vision or with vision in one eye blurred to disrupt binocular vision. Gaze strategy was highly sensitive to the complexity of the terrain, with more fixations dedicated to foothold selection as the terrain became more difficult. The primary effect of increased sensory uncertainty due to disrupted binocular vision was a small bias in gaze towards closer footholds, indicating greater pressure on the visuomotor control process. Participants with binocular vision losses due to developmental disorders (i.e., amblyopia, strabismus), who have had the opportunity to develop alternative strategies, also biased their gaze towards closer footholds. Across all participants, we observed a relationship between an individual’s typical level of binocular visual function and the degree to which gaze is shifted toward the body. Thus the gaze–gait relationship is sensitive to the level of sensory uncertainty, and deficits in binocular visual function (whether transient or long-standing) have systematic effects on gaze strategy in complex terrains. We conclude that binocular vision provides useful information for locating footholds during locomotion. Furthermore, we have demonstrated that combined eye/body tracking in natural environments can be used to provide a more detailed understanding of the impact of a type of vision loss on the visuomotor control process of walking, a vital everyday task.
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spelling pubmed-85366642021-10-25 Binocular vision and the control of foot placement during walking in natural terrain Bonnen, Kathryn Matthis, Jonathan S. Gibaldi, Agostino Banks, Martin S. Levi, Dennis M. Hayhoe, Mary Sci Rep Article Coordination between visual and motor processes is critical for the selection of stable footholds when walking in uneven terrains. While recent work (Matthis et al. in Curr Biol 8(28):1224–1233, 2018) demonstrates a tight link between gaze (visual) and gait (motor), it remains unclear which aspects of visual information play a role in this visuomotor control loop, and how the loss of this information affects that relationship. Here we examine the role of binocular information in the visuomotor control of walking over complex terrain. We recorded eye and body movements while normally-sighted participants walked over terrains of varying difficulty, with intact vision or with vision in one eye blurred to disrupt binocular vision. Gaze strategy was highly sensitive to the complexity of the terrain, with more fixations dedicated to foothold selection as the terrain became more difficult. The primary effect of increased sensory uncertainty due to disrupted binocular vision was a small bias in gaze towards closer footholds, indicating greater pressure on the visuomotor control process. Participants with binocular vision losses due to developmental disorders (i.e., amblyopia, strabismus), who have had the opportunity to develop alternative strategies, also biased their gaze towards closer footholds. Across all participants, we observed a relationship between an individual’s typical level of binocular visual function and the degree to which gaze is shifted toward the body. Thus the gaze–gait relationship is sensitive to the level of sensory uncertainty, and deficits in binocular visual function (whether transient or long-standing) have systematic effects on gaze strategy in complex terrains. We conclude that binocular vision provides useful information for locating footholds during locomotion. Furthermore, we have demonstrated that combined eye/body tracking in natural environments can be used to provide a more detailed understanding of the impact of a type of vision loss on the visuomotor control process of walking, a vital everyday task. Nature Publishing Group UK 2021-10-22 /pmc/articles/PMC8536664/ /pubmed/34686759 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-99846-0 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Article
Bonnen, Kathryn
Matthis, Jonathan S.
Gibaldi, Agostino
Banks, Martin S.
Levi, Dennis M.
Hayhoe, Mary
Binocular vision and the control of foot placement during walking in natural terrain
title Binocular vision and the control of foot placement during walking in natural terrain
title_full Binocular vision and the control of foot placement during walking in natural terrain
title_fullStr Binocular vision and the control of foot placement during walking in natural terrain
title_full_unstemmed Binocular vision and the control of foot placement during walking in natural terrain
title_short Binocular vision and the control of foot placement during walking in natural terrain
title_sort binocular vision and the control of foot placement during walking in natural terrain
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8536664/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34686759
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-99846-0
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