School of Psychology, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
Department of Psychology, University of Nevada, Reno, USA.
Sci Rep. 2023 Sep 8;13(1):14864. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-40655-y.
Recent evidence suggests that perceptual and cognitive functions are codetermined by rhythmic bodily states. Prior investigations have focused on the cardiac and respiratory rhythms, both of which are also known to synchronise with locomotion-arguably our most common and natural of voluntary behaviours. Compared to the cardiorespiratory rhythms, walking is easier to voluntarily control, enabling a test of how natural and voluntary rhythmic action may affect sensory function. Here we show that the speed and phase of human locomotion constrains sensorimotor performance. We used a continuous visuo-motor tracking task in a wireless, body-tracking virtual environment, and found that the accuracy and reaction time of continuous reaching movements were decreased at slower walking speeds, and rhythmically modulated according to the phases of the step-cycle. Decreased accuracy when walking at slow speeds suggests an advantage for interlimb coordination at normal walking speeds, in contrast to previous research on dual-task walking and reach-to-grasp movements. Phasic modulations of reach precision within the step-cycle also suggest that the upper limbs are affected by the ballistic demands of motor-preparation during natural locomotion. Together these results show that the natural phases of human locomotion impose constraints on sensorimotor function and demonstrate the value of examining dynamic and natural behaviour in contrast to the traditional and static methods of psychological science.
最近的证据表明，感知和认知功能是由有节奏的身体状态共同决定的。先前的研究集中在心脏和呼吸节奏上，这两者也被认为与运动同步——这可能是我们最常见和最自然的自愿行为。与心肺节奏相比，步行更容易自愿控制，这使得我们可以测试自然和自愿的节奏活动如何影响感觉功能。在这里，我们表明人类运动的速度和相位限制了运动感觉功能。我们在一个无线、身体跟踪的虚拟环境中使用了连续的视觉运动跟踪任务，发现当步行速度较慢时，连续到达运动的准确性和反应时间会降低，并根据步幅周期的相位进行节奏调制。当以较慢的速度行走时，准确性降低表明在正常行走速度下，四肢协调性具有优势，这与之前关于双任务行走和伸手抓握运动的研究不同。在步幅周期内，到达精度的相位调制也表明上肢受到自然运动中运动准备的弹道需求的影响。这些结果共同表明，人类运动的自然阶段对运动感觉功能施加了限制，并证明了与心理学传统的静态方法相比，研究动态和自然行为的价值。
