From real to virtual: Kinematic adjustments in gait biomechanics of healthy older adults

IF 1.9 3区心理学 Q4 NEUROSCIENCES

Human Movement Science Pub Date : 2026-02-01 Epub Date: 2025-12-03 DOI:10.1016/j.humov.2025.103434

Emanuele Los Angeles , Layla Cupertino , Nathalia Mendes Pellegrino , Brenda Luciano de Souza , Claudiane Arakaki Fukuchi , Daniel Boari Coelho

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) technology has emerged as a valuable tool for gait rehabilitation, offering controlled and immersive environments that simulate real-world scenarios. Although little is known about how immersive VR affects gait biomechanics in older adults, we specifically investigate how walking in VR influences lower-limb kinematics compared to walking in a non-VR environment. Healthy older adults walked at their self-selected speed on an instrumented treadmill. VR participants experienced a fully immersive virtual industrial environment using the Computer Assisted Rehabilitation Environment (CAREN) system, while non-VR participants walked without a virtual environment. Kinematics were analyzed using one-dimensional Statistical Parametric Mapping to compare the VR and non-VR conditions across the gait cycle. Dimensionless gait speed was also assessed to ensure consistency in walking pace between groups. No significant differences were found between the VR and non-VR groups in dimensionless gait speed. However, phase-specific differences were observed in pelvic tilt, hip adduction/abduction, and ankle dorsiflexion/plantarflexion. These differences were small in magnitude (largest ≈4°) and within ranges often reported for measurement error or minimal detectable change in kinematics; therefore, they should be interpreted cautiously and as associations observed under differing acquisition/processing pipelines rather than as definitive effects attributable to VR. While overall speed was preserved, older adults made localized joint-level adjustments during specific gait phases, suggesting that immersive visual conditions interact with sensorimotor control.

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从真实到虚拟：健康老年人步态生物力学的运动学调整

虚拟现实（VR）技术已经成为步态康复的宝贵工具，提供模拟现实世界场景的受控和沉浸式环境。尽管人们对沉浸式VR如何影响老年人的步态生物力学知之甚少，但我们专门研究了与在非VR环境中行走相比，在VR中行走如何影响下肢运动学。健康的老年人在带器械的跑步机上以自己选择的速度行走。VR参与者使用计算机辅助康复环境（CAREN）系统体验了完全沉浸式的虚拟工业环境，而非VR参与者在没有虚拟环境的情况下行走。使用一维统计参数映射分析运动学，比较整个步态周期的VR和非VR条件。无因次步态速度也被评估，以确保两组之间步行速度的一致性。在无量纲步态速度上，VR组与非VR组无显著差异。然而，在骨盆倾斜、髋关节内收/外展和踝关节背屈/跖屈方面观察到阶段性差异。这些差异在量级上很小（最大≈4°），并且在测量误差或运动学最小可检测变化的范围内；因此，它们应该谨慎地解释，并作为在不同采集/处理管道下观察到的关联，而不是作为可归因于VR的确定影响。虽然整体速度保持不变，但老年人在特定的步态阶段进行局部关节水平调整，这表明沉浸式视觉条件与感觉运动控制相互作用。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Human Movement Science 医学-神经科学

CiteScore

3.80

自引率

4.80%

发文量

审稿时长

42 days

期刊介绍： Human Movement Science provides a medium for publishing disciplinary and multidisciplinary studies on human movement. It brings together psychological, biomechanical and neurophysiological research on the control, organization and learning of human movement, including the perceptual support of movement. The overarching goal of the journal is to publish articles that help advance theoretical understanding of the control and organization of human movement, as well as changes therein as a function of development, learning and rehabilitation. The nature of the research reported may vary from fundamental theoretical or empirical studies to more applied studies in the fields of, for example, sport, dance and rehabilitation with the proviso that all studies have a distinct theoretical bearing. Also, reviews and meta-studies advancing the understanding of human movement are welcome. These aims and scope imply that purely descriptive studies are not acceptable, while methodological articles are only acceptable if the methodology in question opens up new vistas in understanding the control and organization of human movement. The same holds for articles on exercise physiology, which in general are not supported, unless they speak to the control and organization of human movement. In general, it is required that the theoretical message of articles published in Human Movement Science is, to a certain extent, innovative and not dismissible as just "more of the same."