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The development of visually guided stepping

Mowbray, R.; Gottwald, J.M; Zhao, M.; Atkinson, A.P.; Cowie, D.

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Authors

R. Mowbray

J.M Gottwald

M. Zhao



Abstract

Adults use vision during stepping and walking to fine-tune foot placement. However, the developmental profile of visually guided stepping is unclear. We asked (1) whether children use online vision to fine-tune precise steps and (2) whether preci- sion stepping develops as part of broader visuomotor development, alongside other fundamental motor skills like reaching. With 6-(N = 11), 7-(N = 11), 8-(N = 11)-year-olds and adults (N = 15), we manipulated visual input during steps and reaches. Using motion capture, we measured step and reach error, and postural stability. We expected (1) both steps and reaches would be visually guided (2) with similar developmental profiles (3) foot placement biases that promote stability, and (4) correlations between postural stability and step error. Children used vision to fine-tune both steps and reaches. At all ages, foot placement was biased (albeit not in the predicted directions). Contrary to our predictions, step error was not correlated with postural stability. By 8 years, children’s step and reach error were adult-like. Despite similar visual control mechanisms, stepping and reaching had different developmental profiles: step error reduced with age whilst reach error was lower and stable with age. We argue that the development of both visually guided and non-visually guided action is limb-specific.

Citation

Mowbray, R., Gottwald, J., Zhao, M., Atkinson, A., & Cowie, D. (2019). The development of visually guided stepping. Experimental Brain Research, 237(11), 2875-2883. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-019-05629-5

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Aug 14, 2019
Online Publication Date Aug 30, 2019
Publication Date Nov 30, 2019
Deposit Date Sep 2, 2019
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Experimental Brain Research
Print ISSN 0014-4819
Electronic ISSN 1432-1106
Publisher Springer
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 237
Issue 11
Pages 2875-2883
DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-019-05629-5

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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
Advance online version © The Author(s) 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.






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