Article

Differences in gait between overground and treadmill walking are suggested to
result from imposed treadmill speed and lack of visual flow. To counteract this
effect, feedback-controlled treadmills that allow the subject to control the belt
speed along with an immersive virtual reality (VR) have recently been developed.
We studied the effect of adding a VR during both fixed speed (FS) and self-paced
(SP) treadmill walking. Nineteen subjects walked on a dual-belt instrumented
treadmill with a simple endless road projected on a 180 degrees circular screen.
A main effect of VR was found for hip flexion offset, peak hip extension, peak
knee extension moment, knee flexion moment gain and ankle power during push off.
A consistent interaction effect between VR and treadmill mode was found for 12
out of 30 parameters, although the differences were small and did not exceed 50%
of the within subject stride variance. At FS, the VR seemed to slightly improve
the walking pattern towards overground walking, with for example a 6.5mm increase
in stride length. At SP, gait became slightly more cautious by adding a VR, with
a 9.1mm decrease in stride length. Irrespective of treadmill mode, subjects rated
walking with the VR as more similar to overground walking. In the context of
clinical gait analysis, the effects of VR are too small to be relevant and are
outweighed by the gains of adding a VR, such as a more stimulating experience and
possibility of augmenting it by real-time feedback.
CI - Copyright (c) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Langue : ANGLAIS