title: Dynamic clearance measure to evaluate locomotor and perceptuo-motor strategies used for obstacle circumvention in a virtual environment.
abstract: Circumvention around an obstacle entails a dynamic interaction with the obstacle to maintain a safe clearance. We used a novel mathematical interpolation method based on the modified Shepard's method of Inverse Distance Weighting to compute dynamic clearance that reflected this interaction as well as minimal clearance. This proof-of-principle study included seven young healthy, four post-stroke and four healthy age-matched individuals. A virtual environment designed to assess obstacle circumvention was used to administer a locomotor (walking) and a perceptuo-motor (navigation with a joystick) task. In both tasks, participants were asked to navigate towards a target while avoiding collision with a moving obstacle that approached from either head-on, or 30° left or right. Among young individuals, dynamic clearance did not differ significantly between obstacle approach directions in both tasks. Post-stroke individuals maintained larger and smaller dynamic clearance during the locomotor and the perceptuo-motor task respectively as compared to age-matched controls. Dynamic clearance was larger than minimal distance from the obstacle irrespective of the group, task and obstacle approach direction. Also, in contrast to minimal distance, dynamic clearance can respond differently to different avoidance behaviors. Such a measure can be beneficial in contrasting obstacle avoidance behaviors in different populations with mobility problems.
authors: School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Feil and Oberfeld Research Center, Jewish Rehabilitation Hospital, Research site of the Montreal Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Rehabilitation (CRIR), Laval, Quebec, Canada. Electronic address: anuja.darekar@mail.mcgill.ca.
authors: Anuja
authors: A
authors: Darekar
authors: School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Feil and Oberfeld Research Center, Jewish Rehabilitation Hospital, Research site of the Montreal Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Rehabilitation (CRIR), Laval, Quebec, Canada. Electronic address: anouk.lamontagne@mcgill.ca.
authors: Anouk
authors: A
authors: Lamontagne
authors: School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Feil and Oberfeld Research Center, Jewish Rehabilitation Hospital, Research site of the Montreal Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Rehabilitation (CRIR), Laval, Quebec, Canada. Electronic address: joyce.fung@mcgill.ca.
authors: Joyce
authors: J
authors: Fung
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005684:Gait / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008124:Locomotion; D008875:Middle Aged; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D013028:Space Perception; D020521:Stroke / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016138:Walking / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Collision avoidance; Gait; Navigation; Virtual reality; Visual perception