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Published on: April 30, 2020
Walking reveals trunk orientation bias for visual attention.
Jefferson D Grubb1, Catherine L Reed, Stefan Bate
1University of Denver, Denver Colorado, USA.
Perception & Psychophysics
|June 18, 2008
Summary
Trunk orientation biases visual attention during walking, especially under motor load conditions. This bias, where attention is faster for targets in front of the body, emerges during locomotion and not when standing.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive psychology
- Human motor control
- Neuroscience
Background:
- The body's trunk influences spatial action and attention.
- Trunk orientation may create a spatial region prioritized by the attention system.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate conditions influencing trunk orientation bias in attention for healthy adults.
- Disambiguate contributions of motor activity, motor load, and cognitive load to trunk orientation biases.
Main Methods:
- Compared visual detection performance in standing and walking (forward, sideways) on a treadmill across three experiments.
- Manipulated motor activity, motor load, and cognitive load using a dual-task paradigm.
Main Results:
- Trunk orientation biases (faster detection in front of midline) observed during forward and sideways walking, but not standing.
- Bias was greatest at slow walking paces, ruling out increased motor activity as the sole cause.
- Motor load, not cognitive load, produced the trunk orientation bias.
Conclusions:
- A trunk orientation bias for attention emerges during walking.
- Motor load is a key factor in developing this attention bias.
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