The Visual Guidance of Locomotion

描述(由申请人提供)：本提案概述了一项研究计划，旨在调查如何使用视觉信息来指导移动，以确保在环境中安全有效地导航。更具体地说，长期目标是研究适应机制，使人们能够在面对身体和环境的动态变化时执行基本的运动任务。由于受伤、疾病、神经损伤、衰老、疲劳、生长、负荷变化等原因，演员的运动能力在短时间和长时间范围内都在不断变化。这种可变性对运动的视觉控制产生了不小的影响。适应这些变化的能力对于支持安全和高效的移动，以及减少经常导致失去平衡、摔倒和与障碍物相撞的颠簸、矫正运动的需要，起着至关重要的作用。理解运动的视觉控制的下一个重要步骤是调查人们如何感知世界，并以考虑到他们不断变化的运动能力的方式控制他们的运动。这项建议中描述的研究旨在解决以下关于运动适应的问题：(1)光流的哪些组成部分驱动对运动能力的变化的适应？(2)适应在多大程度上适用于与学习不同的条件和任务？(3)我们应该在多大程度上将人们考虑运动能力的可靠性归因于(A)内部适应机制，以及(B)关于一个人的运动能力的信息是在运行中获得的？实验将在配备了头盔显示器和运动跟踪设备的大面积虚拟环境实验室中进行。受试者将执行各种运动任务，包括转向目标、避开障碍物、拦截移动目标、调节步态以踏上安全的立足点，以及选择路线。这些结果将为了解运动技能的发展、获得和维持，以及改进促进适应影响运动能力的变化的治疗方案提供知识基础。公共卫生相关性：运动是许多日常活动不可或缺的一部分。衰老、损伤、疾病、疲劳或假肢的使用带来的运动能力的变化对一个人在复杂、动态的环境中安全有效地导航的能力构成了严重威胁。适应这些变化的能力对于支持安全和高效的移动，以及减少经常导致失去平衡、摔倒和与障碍物相撞的颠簸、矫正运动的需要，起着至关重要的作用。这项建议中描述的研究旨在了解允许视觉运动系统适应的机制。该项目的结果将为设计促进快速和完全适应的物理和职业治疗方案提供基础，使运动能力受损的人能够恢复基本的运动功能。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal outlines a program of research designed to investigate how visual information is used to guide locomotion to ensure safe and efficient navigation through the environment. More specifically, the long-term objective is to investigate the adaptive mechanisms that allow people to perform basic locomotor tasks in the face of variations in the dynamics of the body and the environment. Actors' movement capabilities are continually changing over both short and long time-scales as a result of injury, disease, neurological damage, aging, fatigue, growth, changes in load, and so on. Such variability has non-trivial consequences for the visual control of locomotion. The ability to adapt to these changes plays an essential role in supporting safe and efficient locomotion, and reducing the need for jerky, corrective movements that often result in losing balance, falling, and colliding with obstacles. An important next step in understanding the visual control of locomotion is to investigate how people perceive the world and control their movement in ways that take into account their ever-changing movement capabilities. The research described in this proposal is aimed at addressing the following questions about locomotor adaptation: (1) What components of optic flow drive adaptation to changes in locomotor capabilities? (2) To what extent does adaptation generalize to conditions and tasks that differ from those in which learning occurs? (3) To what extent should we attribute the reliability with which people take their movement capabilities into account to (a) internal adaptive mechanisms, and (b) information about one's locomotor capabilities that is picked up on the fly? Experiments will be conducted in a large-area virtual environment laboratory equipped with a head-mounted display and motion tracking equipment. Subjects will perform a variety of locomotor tasks, including turning toward goals, avoiding obstacles, intercepting moving targets, regulating gait to step on safe footholds, and selecting routes. The results will provide a foundation of knowledge for understanding the development, acquisition, and maintenance of locomotor skills, and for improving therapy programs that promote adaptation to changes that affect one's locomotor capabilities. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Locomotion is an integral part of many routine, daily activities. Changes in movement capabilities brought about by aging, injury, disease, fatigue, or use of a prosthetic limb pose a serious threat to one's ability to safely and efficiently navigate through complex, dynamic environments. The ability to adapt to these changes plays an essential role in supporting safe and efficient locomotion, and reducing the need for jerky, corrective movements that often result in losing balance, falling, and colliding with obstacles. The research described in this proposal is aimed at understanding the mechanisms that allow for adaptation of the visual-locomotor system. The results of this project will provide a basis for designing physical and occupational therapy programs that promote rapid and complete adaptation, allowing people whose movement capabilities become impaired to recover basic locomotor functions.