The Visual Guidance of Locomotion

描述（由申请人提供）：该提案概述了一项研究计划，旨在研究如何使用视觉信息来引导运动，以确保安全有效地在环境中导航。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，动作者的运动能力在短时间和长时间尺度上都在不断变化，这种变化对运动的视觉控制有着重要的影响。适应这些变化的能力在支持安全和有效的运动中起着至关重要的作用，并减少了对通常导致失去平衡，跌倒和与障碍物碰撞的急动，纠正运动的需求。理解视觉控制运动的下一步重要步骤是研究人们如何感知世界并以考虑其不断变化的运动能力的方式控制他们的运动。本研究的目的是解决以下有关运动适应的问题：（1）什么成分的光流驱动适应运动能力的变化？(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对自身运动能力的可靠性归因于（a）内部适应机制，以及（B）在飞行中获得的关于运动能力的信息？实验将在一个大面积的虚拟环境实验室进行，配备了头戴式显示器和运动跟踪设备。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，调整步态以踩在安全的立足点上，以及选择路线。研究结果将为理解运动技能的发展、获得和维持提供知识基础，并为改善促进适应影响运动能力变化的治疗方案提供知识基础。公共卫生相关性：运动是许多常规日常活动的组成部分。由老化、受伤、疾病、疲劳或使用假肢所带来的运动能力的变化对一个人在复杂的动态环境中安全有效地导航的能力构成严重威胁。适应这些变化的能力在支持安全和有效的运动中起着至关重要的作用，并减少了对通常导致失去平衡，跌倒和与障碍物碰撞的急动，纠正运动的需求。本提案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.