The impact of motor task and environmental constraints on gait patterns during treadmill walking in a fully immersive virtual environment

Theoretical Rationale for Design of Tasks in a Virtual Reality-Based Exergame for Rehabilitation Purposes

“…We have not found any studies on fall or balance outcomes after height exposure in virtual reality, but Peterson et al ( 2018 ) have found that walking on a beam with virtual height exposure decreased dynamic balance and increased cognitive load in young adults, suggesting that this condition was challenging and could have a training effect. We found that gait regularity and walk ratio decreased when participants walked onto the glass bridge, i.e., they walked more unsteady and cautiously, but also that these gait characteristics returned to normal before walking off the bridge, suggesting that people adapt quickly (Bovim et al, 2020 ). For progression, players can throw an ax at objects that hang in the air.…”

“…This task is meant as a motor task, placing demands on eye-hand coordination (and is an added task to the task of walking). In the validating phase, the coin-catching task was the task that induced the most gait variability on the participant (Bovim et al, 2020 ). We suggest that due to the nature of the task, where coins come at different heights and at both sides of the player, and the player has to reach for the coins, the center of gravity is being continually shifted in the direction of the reaching arm, leading to larger stride-to-stride fluctuations than the other tasks.…”

“…Like the coin collecting task, this task imposes the need for cognitive resources and eye-hand coordination. However, while the coin-collection task requires the player to reach in different, random directions, the balance ball task requires the player to adopt a rigid and cautious gait pattern, as seen in the validation phase where gait regularity in the anteroposterior direction increased substantially from the coin-collection task (Bovim et al, 2020 ). We have not found earlier research about balance- or mobility-related benefits from training by walking with a rigid gait pattern, but suggest that practicing different gaits for different tasks and contexts is beneficial for an overall ability to adjust physical behaviors to different situations.…”

“…A minimal viable product (MVP) was produced, following an iterative approach, including weekly proto-testing and adjusting and stage-based ease of use-testing. The MVP included a base of tasks, focusing on perceptual-, motor-, and mechanical constraints (Bovim et al, 2020 ). The MVP was then tested by investigating how gait parameters changed when executing the tasks of the game in a sample of healthy adults.…”

“…Mechanical: Changing and decreasing the base of support An early version of VR Walk (the minimal viable product) has been tried on healthy adults, where we investigated how the different tasks changed gait regularity (Bovim et al, 2020), and the game is planned for use in projects with both children/adolescents and older adults.…”