Abstract
We investigated gaze behaviour and collision avoidance strategies in 16 healthy young individuals walking towards a goal while exposed to virtual pedestrians (VRPs) approaching from different directions (left, middle, right). This locomotor task and an auditory-based cognitive task were performed under single and dual-task conditions. Longer gaze fixation durations were observed on the approaching vs. other VRPs, with longer fixations devoted to the upper trunk and head compared to other body segments. Compared to other pedestrian approaches, the middle pedestrian received longer fixations and elicited faster walking speeds, larger onset distances of trajectory devitation and smaller obstacle clearances. Gaze and locomotor behaviours were similar between single and dual-task conditions but dual-task costs were observed for the cognitive task. The longer gaze fixations on approaching vs. other pedestrians suggest that enhanced visual attention is devoted to pedestrians posing a greater risk of collision. Likewise, longer gaze fixations for the middle pedestrians may be due to the greater collision risk entailed by this condition, and/or to the fact that this pedestrian was positioned in front of the end goal. Longer fixations on approaching VRPs’ trunk and head may serve the purpose of anticipating their walking trajectory. Finally, the dual-task effects that were limited to the cognitive task suggest that healthy young adults prioritize the locomotor task and associated acquisition of visual information. The healthy patterns of visuomotor behaviour characterized in this study will serve as a basis for comparison to further understand defective collision avoidance strategies in patient populations.
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Data availability
Data presented in the context of this study cannot be made available, as this option was not included in the consent forms signed by participants. As per these consent forms, the data are to be destroyed by the research team 5 years after the end of the project.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Christian Beaudoin and Samir Sangani for programming the experiment, as well as participants who took part in the study.
Funding
This study was funded by the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (RGPIN-04471-2016). TMB was the recipient of scholarships from the McGill School of Occupational and Physical Therapy and the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Rehabilitation of Greater Montréal.
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Communicated by Bill J Yates.
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Bhojwani, T.M., Lynch, S.D., Bühler, M.A. et al. Impact of dual tasking on gaze behaviour and locomotor strategies adopted while circumventing virtual pedestrians during a collision avoidance task. Exp Brain Res 240, 2633–2645 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-022-06427-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-022-06427-2