Your Eyes Decide Where Your Foot Lands During Mid-swing When You Are Walking

December 4, 2005

Your Eyes Decide Where Your Foot Lands During Mid-swing When You Are

Walking

Visual information enables walkers to adjust their step while their

foot is in mid-swing - such fine control helps particularly when

walking over rough terrain Placing your foot accurately is a

complicated process. If something moves where you plan to place your

foot then you can adjust your step while your foot is swinging

through. Experts thought previously that if nothing changed in the

path, or in your plans, then the place where your foot will land is

fixed before it even leaves the ground. In this case, you would make

no use of immediate visual information during each step.

Researchers monitored the accuracy with which subjects could step

onto a target. In 50% of the attempts they blocked subjects' vision

just at the point when they were lifting their foot off the ground.

On the occasions when vision was blocked, the subjects were less able

to step accurately on the target.

" Because vision was blocked only after the foot had left the floor,

this research shows that we use visual information to adjust our

footfall while our foot is moving forwards - it is not simply

predetermined at the beginning of the step, " says Dr

Reynolds, who along with Dr Day conducted the work at the

Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, London. The research is

published this week in the Journal of Physiology.

This research models the sort of situation people encounter when

rambling over rough terrain, where they need to accurately place

their feet on well defined targets. Getting it right may avoid your

slipping or twisting an ankle. " This visual guidance mechanism could

also help gymnasts on the beam, or acrobat walkers on a tightrope, as

in these situations accurate foot placement becomes crucial, " says

Reynolds.

Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

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