Gaze shifts during dual-tasking stair descent

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• 作者：Veronica Miyasike-daSilva ; William E. McIlroy
• 关键词：Stair locomotion ; Vision ; Gaze behaviour ; Dual task
• 刊名：Experimental Brain Research
• 出版年：2016
• 出版时间：November 2016
• 年：2016
• 卷：234
• 期：11
• 页码：3233-3243
• 全文大小：968 KB
• 刊物类别：Biomedical and Life Sciences
• 刊物主题：Biomedicine
  Neurosciences
  Neurology
  
• 出版者：Springer Berlin / Heidelberg
• ISSN：1432-1106
• 卷排序：234

文摘

To investigate the role of vision in stair locomotion, young adults descended a seven-step staircase during unrestricted walking (CONTROL), and while performing a concurrent visual reaction time (RT) task displayed on a monitor. The monitor was located at either 3.5 m (HIGH) or 0.5 m (LOW) above ground level at the end of the stairway, which either restricted (HIGH) or facilitated (LOW) the view of the stairs in the lower field of view as participants walked downstairs. Downward gaze shifts (recorded with an eye tracker) and gait speed were significantly reduced in HIGH and LOW compared with CONTROL. Gaze and locomotor behaviour were not different between HIGH and LOW. However, inter-individual variability increased in HIGH, in which participants combined different response characteristics including slower walking, handrail use, downward gaze, and/or increasing RTs. The fastest RTs occurred in the midsteps (non-transition steps). While gait and visual task performance were not statistically different prior to the top and bottom transition steps, gaze behaviour and RT were more variable prior to transition steps in HIGH. This study demonstrated that, in the presence of a visual task, people do not look down as often when walking downstairs and require minimum adjustments provided that the view of the stairs is available in the lower field of view. The middle of the stairs seems to require less from executive function, whereas visual attention appears a requirement to detect the last transition via gaze shifts or peripheral vision.