Department of Physical Therapy, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60612, United States.
Department of Physical Therapy, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60612, United States; PhD Program in Rehabilitation Sciences, College of Applied Health Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60612, United States.
J Bodyw Mov Ther. 2020 Oct;24(4):152-158. doi: 10.1016/j.jbmt.2020.06.031. Epub 2020 Jul 30.
Virtual reality (VR) has been described as an emerging therapeutic strategy to promote motor adaptation in different populations. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of virtual environment demands, provided by an immersive VR system, on kinematic and spatio-temporal gait parameters in healthy young participants.
Fifteen healthy young participants participated in this experimental study performing, in sequence, a baseline natural walking (NW) block, two different virtual environment walking blocks (snowy and crowded conditions), and a mixed walking block (including NW, snowy, and crowded conditions). Participants' Center-of-Mass (COM) excursion angle, medio-lateral (ML) COM excursion, step length, and walking speed were analyzed for each trial.
COM excursion angle and ML-COM excursion increased significantly during the first snowy and crowded VR trials compared to NW trials, while walking speed and step length decreased only for the snowy conditions. COM excursion angle and ML-COM excursion increased significantly from the first to the fourth VR snowy trial and decreased from the first to the fourth VR crowded trial. Participants retained the acquired motor adaptations even after the mixed block.
This study showed that kinematic and spatio-temporal gait parameters of young participants changed according to the virtual environment demands provided for each virtual scenario. In addition, all participants showed a consistent gait adaptation process to each virtual environment across the VR trials. The present findings highlight the impact of VR for gait adaptation, suggesting that VR training could modify motor behavior and enhance the motor adaptation process in healthy young participants.
虚拟现实（VR）被描述为一种新兴的治疗策略，可促进不同人群的运动适应。本研究旨在调查沉浸式 VR 系统提供的虚拟环境需求对健康年轻参与者的运动学和时空步态参数的影响。
15 名健康年轻参与者参与了这项实验研究，他们依次完成了基线自然行走（NW）块、两个不同的虚拟环境行走块（雪地和拥挤条件）和一个混合行走块（包括 NW、雪地和拥挤条件）。分析了每个试验中参与者的质心（COM）偏移角、左右（ML）COM 偏移、步长和行走速度。
与 NW 试验相比，参与者在第一次雪地和拥挤的 VR 试验中 COM 偏移角和 ML-COM 偏移显著增加，而仅在雪地条件下行走速度和步长降低。COM 偏移角和 ML-COM 偏移从第一次到第四次 VR 雪地试验显著增加，并从第一次到第四次 VR 拥挤试验显著降低。参与者在混合块后仍保留获得的运动适应。
本研究表明，年轻参与者的运动学和时空步态参数根据每个虚拟场景提供的虚拟环境需求而变化。此外，所有参与者在整个 VR 试验中对每个虚拟环境表现出一致的步态适应过程。本研究结果强调了 VR 对步态适应的影响，表明 VR 训练可以改变运动行为并增强健康年轻参与者的运动适应过程。
