Kolarik_et_al_2014.pdf (346.72 kB)
Sensory substitution information informs locomotor adjustments when walking through apertures
journal contribution
posted on 2023-08-30, 14:32 authored by Andrew J. Kolarik, Matthew A. Timmis, Silvia Cirstea, Shahina PardhanThe study assessed the ability of the central nervous system (CNS) to use echoic information from sensory substitution devices (SSDs) to rotate the shoulders and safely pass through apertures of different width. Ten visually normal participants performed this task with full vision, or blindfolded using an SSD to obtain information regarding the width of an aperture created by two parallel panels. Two SSDs were tested. Participants passed through apertures of +0%, +18%, +35%, and +70% of measured body width. Kinematic indices recorded movement time, shoulder rotation, average walking velocity across the trial, peak walking velocities before crossing, after crossing and throughout a whole trial. Analyses showed participants used SSD information to regulate shoulder rotation, with greater rotation associated with narrower apertures. Rotations made using an SSD were greater compared to vision, movement times were longer, average walking velocity lower and peak velocities before crossing, after crossing and throughout the whole trial were smaller, suggesting greater caution. Collisions sometimes occurred using an SSD but not using vision, indicating that substituted information did not always result in accurate shoulder rotation judgements. No differences were found between the two SSDs. The data suggest that spatial information, provided by sensory substitution, allows the relative position of aperture panels to be internally represented, enabling the CNS to modify shoulder rotation according to aperture width. Increased buffer space indicated by greater rotations (up to approximately 35% for apertures of +18% of body width), suggests that spatial representations are not as accurate as offered by full vision.
History
Refereed
- Yes
Volume
232Issue number
3Page range
975-984Publication title
Experimental Brain ResearchISSN
1432-1106External DOI
Publisher
SpringerFile version
- Accepted version
Language
- eng
Official URL
Legacy posted date
2016-11-24Legacy creation date
2016-11-23Legacy Faculty/School/Department
ARCHIVED Faculty of Science & Technology (until September 2018)Note
The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00221-013-3809-5Usage metrics
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