Virtual reality-based navigation task to reveal obstacle avoidance performance in individuals with visuospatial...

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Rehabilitation Medicine
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• Post-stroke visuospatial neglect (VSN) frequently leads to collisions with moving objects during ambulation.
• The underlying cause of these collisions—attentional-perceptual deficits versus locomotor impairments—remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether attentional-perceptual deficits associated with VSN contribute to obstacle avoidance failures.
• To differentiate the impact of VSN from locomotor deficits on obstacle avoidance.

Main Methods:

• A seated, joystick-controlled virtual reality task was employed to assess obstacle detection and avoidance in 12 individuals with VSN.
• Participants navigated a virtual environment with obstacles approaching from head-on, contralesional, and ipsilesional directions.

Main Results:

• Obstacles approaching contralesionally and head-on were detected at closer proximities and resulted in collisions.
• Participants initiated avoidance maneuvers earlier and maintained smaller distances for contralesional obstacles.
• Detection and avoidance initiation distances were negatively correlated across all obstacle approaches.

Conclusions:

• Collisions with contralesional and head-on obstacles, observed in a non-locomotor task, highlight the role of VSN-related attentional-perceptual deficits.
• These findings provide evidence that VSN independently impairs obstacle avoidance abilities, separate from post-stroke locomotor deficits.