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Walking with Visual Restrictions in Healthy Elderly and Young Adults

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 March 2010

Sean Gallagher ,
Yves Lajoie  and
Michel Guay
Sean Gallagher
Affiliation:
University of Ottawa
Yves Lajoie*
Affiliation:
University of Ottawa
Michel Guay
Affiliation:
Laurentian University
*
Requests, etc., Yves Lajoie Ph.D., School of Human Kinetics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1N 6N5. Email: Ylajoie@nickel.laurentian.ca
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Abstract

Visual requirements for a simple walking task were evaluated for young and elderly persons to determine if, with normal aging, elderly subjects require more visual information. Ten young adults and 10 elderly people were asked to complete a simple walking task within predetermined pathway boundaries under two conditions of visual restriction. In the reactive condition, subjects automatically received a 200 ms flash of visual information at the halfway point of the walkway. For the predictive condition, subjects did not receive any visual information during the walking trial, but were equipped with an emergency button that would provide 200 ms of visual information whenever they needed it. For both experimental conditions, subjects received additional flashes of visual information if they stepped out of the walkway boundaries. Results showed that older persons stepped out of bounds more often in the reactive condition and gave themselves more visual cues than the younger subjects in the predictive condition. The relative importance of vision during locomotion seems to be higher in the elderly population when compared to young adults.

Résumé

À l'intérieur de cette expérience, nous avons évalué la quantité d'information visuelle nécessaire pour marcher à l'intérieur d'un corridor tracé sur le sol chez une population de jeunes adultes et de personnes âgées. Dix jeunes adultes et 10 personnes âgées devaient marcher à l'intérieur d'un corridor lors de deux conditions expérimentales limitant la vision. Dans la condition réactive, les sujets recevaient à mi-chemin de la longueur du corridor, 200ms d'information visuelle. Dans la condition prédictive, les sujets pouvaient, en pressant un bouton tenu dans leur main, se donner de l'information visuelle (200ms à chaque fois). Cependant, les sujets devaient se donner le moins d'information visuelle possible. De plus, les sujets recevaient de l'information visuelle à chaque fois qu'ils quittaient les limites du corridor et ce pour les deux conditions expérimentales. Les résultats démontrent que les personnes âgées sortent plus souvent des limites dans la condition réactive et qu'ils se donnent également plus d'information visuelle dans la condition prédictive. L'importance relative de la vision lors de la réalisation de la marche semble plus importante chez les personnes âgées que chez les jeunes adultes.

Keywords

GaitVisionVisual RestrictionsFallsAgingDémarchevisionrestrictions visuelleschutesviellissement
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal on Aging / La Revue canadienne du vieillissement , Volume 21 , Issue 2 , Summer/Été 2002 , pp. 295 - 301
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Association on Gerontology 2002

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Footnotes

*This project was supported by grants from NSERC to Dr. Yves Lajoie. Special thanks to Francis Thériault for his help in computer programming and technical assistance.

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