PubMed Health⌕ Search
Home/Archive/PubMed

PubMed · 11433011

Obstacle avoidance during human walking: learning rate and cross-modal transfer.

T Erni·V Dietz
View original source ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

1. The aim of this study was to investigate the significance of specific afferent information during motor learning. Blindfolded subjects stepped over an obstacle on a treadmill while different stimuli (acoustic (ACU), somatosensory (SOM) and light flash (LED)) signalled the approaching obstacle. The effect of the above stimuli was then evaluated and compared to full vision (VIS) locomotion. In the non-visual conditions feedback information about the performance was provided by an acoustic signal. 2. Using each of the different stimuli for information the level of subject performance was assessed by noting foot clearance and analysing both leg muscle electromyographic activity and movement trajectories during three successive runs. Each of these runs consisted of 100 steps over the obstacle. 3. The best performance at the onset of the first run was achieved during the VIS condition. When the VIS condition (run 1 + 2) was followed by ACU or SOM information or when the ACU condition (run 1 + 2) was followed by LED, little cross-modal transfer (CMT) occurred, i.e. adaptation in run 3 started again at a low level of performance. In contrast, if adaptation started with ACU stimuli followed by SOM stimuli, almost full CMT occurred. The absolute level of performance achieved after the second or third runs was similar in the VIS and non-VIS conditions. 4. In conclusion, the course of motor learning depends on specific afferent information, and feedforward control has a special influence on the performance only at the onset of the experiment but not on the rate of learning. The fact that little CMT occurs from visual to non-visual stimuli and from ACU to LED suggests that visual afferent input is processed in a different way to non-visual stimuli.

Explore related subjects

Acoustic StimulationAdaptation, PhysiologicalAdultAvoidance LearningCuesElectric StimulationHumansPhotic StimulationTibial NerveVision, OcularWalkingJournal ArticleResearch Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

T Erni, V Dietz. 2001-07-01. Obstacle avoidance during human walking: learning rate and cross-modal transfer.. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7793.2001.00303.x

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related citations

PubMed2008

Sensory filtering phenomenology in PTSD.

Disrupted sensory filtering, or problems with suppressing irrelevant environmental sensory stimuli, has been reported in individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, the relationship of sensory filtering deficits to specific PTSD symptoms versus an association with general trauma exposure is unclear. These relationships were examined by administering self-report measures of trauma exposure, PTSD, and sensory gating phenomenology to undergraduate participants with PTSD (n=32), with trauma history but without PTSD (n=144), and with minimal trauma history (n=153). Subjects with PTSD reported greater filtering disruption than individuals in the trauma only and low trauma groups, who did not differ. Individuals endorsing reexperiencing and numbing symptoms, and females endorsing hypervigilance, reported disrupted sensory filtering phenomenology. These results suggest that impaired filtering differentiates between individuals with PTSD symptoms and asymptomatic individuals exposed to multiple traumas and low-trauma controls.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed2007

Hypoglycemia reduces the blood-oxygenation level dependent signal in primary auditory and visual cortex: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

Studies of the effects of hypoglycemia on the brain using neurocognitive testing have suggested that mainly complex functions subserved by secondary and tertiary cortex are affected by mild to moderate hypoglycemia and that intensively treated patients with Type I diabetes mellitus (T1DM) may have altered sensitivity to the central nervous system effects of hypoglycemia. Functional magnetic resonance imaging provides a sensitive, regionally-specific probe of possible neurophysiologic changes related to hypoglycemia in the brain. Eleven intensively-treated T1DM patients and 11 matched non-diabetic controls took part in a 2-day protocol in which functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to measure changes in the patterns of brain activation produced by simple auditory and visual stimuli in different conditions. On one day, participants were euglycemic the entire time. On the other day, an initial 50-min euglycemic period was followed by a 50-min hypoglycemic period. Results indicated that hypoglycemia reduced the amplitude of the blood-oxygenation level dependent response in primary auditory and visual cortex to simple auditory and visual stimuli. The latency and duration of the transient hemodynamic response function were not affected. Responses to hypoglycemia were similar in diabetic and non-diabetic participants. These results suggest that mild to moderate hypoglycemia may alter the balance of blood flow and oxygen extraction when glucose levels are lowered. Intensively-treated T1DM, with its attendant frequent hypoglycemic episodes, did not seem to alter hypoglycemic responses in primary visual and auditory cortex.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed2007

Song discrimination learning in zebra finches induces highly divergent responses to novel songs.

Perceptual biases can shape the evolution of signal form. Understanding the origin and direction of such biases is therefore crucial for understanding signal evolution. Many animals learn about species-specific signals. Discrimination learning using simple stimuli varying in one dimension (e.g. amplitude, wavelength) can result in perceptual biases with preferences for specific novel stimuli, depending on the stimulus dimensions. We examine how this translates to discrimination learning involving complex communication signals; birdsongs. Zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) were trained to discriminate between two artificial songs, using a Go/No-Go procedure. The training songs in experiment 1 differed in the number of repeats of a particular element. The songs in experiment 2 differed in the position of an odd element in a series of repeated elements. We examined generalization patterns by presenting novel songs with more or fewer repeated elements (experiment 1), or with the odd element earlier or later in the repeated element sequence (experiment 2). Control birds were trained with only one song. The generalization curves obtained from (i) control birds, (ii) experimental birds in experiment 1, and (iii) experimental birds in experiment 2 showed large and systematic differences from each other. Birds in experiment 1, but not 2, responded more strongly to specific novel songs than to training songs, showing 'peak shift'. The outcome indicates that learning about communication signals may give rise to perceptual biases that may drive signal evolution.

Acoustic Stimulation↗