Muller Karl S, Bonnen Kathryn, Shields Stephanie M, Panfili Daniel P, Matthis Jonathan, Hayhoe Mary M
Center for Perceptual Systems, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, United States.
School of Optometry, Indiana University, Bloomington, United States.
Elife. 2024 Dec 9;12:RP91243. doi: 10.7554/eLife.91243.
Relatively little is known about the way vision is used to guide locomotion in the natural world. What visual features are used to choose paths in natural complex terrain? To answer this question, we measured eye and body movements while participants walked in natural outdoor environments. We incorporated measurements of the three-dimensional (3D) terrain structure into our analyses and reconstructed the terrain along the walker's path, applying photogrammetry techniques to the eye tracker's scene camera videos. Combining these reconstructions with the walker's body movements, we demonstrate that walkers take terrain structure into account when selecting paths through an environment. We find that they change direction to avoid taking steeper steps that involve large height changes, instead of choosing more circuitous, relatively flat paths. Our data suggest walkers plan the location of individual footholds and plan ahead to select flatter paths. These results provide evidence that locomotor behavior in natural environments is controlled by decision mechanisms that account for multiple factors, including sensory and motor information, costs, and path planning.
对于视觉在自然世界中引导运动的方式，我们所知甚少。在自然复杂地形中，人们会利用哪些视觉特征来选择路径呢？为了回答这个问题，我们在参与者于自然户外环境中行走时，测量了他们的眼睛和身体运动。我们将三维（3D）地形结构的测量纳入分析，并沿着步行者的路径重建地形，将摄影测量技术应用于眼动仪的场景摄像机视频。将这些重建结果与步行者的身体运动相结合，我们证明步行者在选择穿越环境的路径时会考虑地形结构。我们发现他们会改变方向以避免迈出涉及较大高度变化的更陡峭的步伐，而不是选择更迂回、相对平坦的路径。我们的数据表明步行者会规划单个立足点的位置，并提前规划以选择更平坦的路径。这些结果提供了证据，表明自然环境中的运动行为是由考虑多种因素的决策机制控制的，这些因素包括感官和运动信息、成本以及路径规划。
