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Sit-to-stand-and-walk from 120% Knee Height: A Novel Approach to Assess Dynamic Postural Control Independent of Lead-limb
Published on: August 30, 2016
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Embodied decisions during walking.
Eric Grießbach1, Philipp Raßbach2, Oliver Herbort2
1Department for the Psychology of Human Movement and Sport, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany.
Journal of Neurophysiology
|October 5, 2022
Summary
Concurrent movements, like walking, influence our decisions by altering motor costs. This study shows that changing these costs, such as turning angles or adding weights, biases choices, supporting the concept of embodied decision-making.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Motor Control
- Decision Science
Background:
- Embodied decision-making research explores how concurrent actions affect value-based choices.
- The 'swing leg effect' demonstrates how walking direction can bias decisions, potentially due to motor costs.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether systematic manipulation of motor costs influences decisions during concurrent actions.
- To test the hypothesis that motor costs, not just movement, drive decision biases in embodied contexts.
Main Methods:
- Participants made decisions involving walking and turning towards targets with varying rewards.
- Motor costs were manipulated through symmetric and asymmetric turning magnitudes and added ankle weights.
- Decision biases were analyzed in relation to manipulated motor costs and concurrent movements.
Main Results:
- Experiments 1a and 1b showed that turning magnitude moderated the swing leg effect and stepping behavior.
- Experiment 2 indicated a preference for less costly, smaller turning magnitudes.
- Experiment 3 replicated the swing leg effect when walking costs were increased with ankle weights.
Conclusions:
- Dynamically changing motor costs significantly influence value-based decisions during ongoing actions.
- Findings support the concept of embodied decision-making, where physical actions and their associated costs shape choices.
- Motor processes and their associated costs are integral to understanding decision-making in embodied scenarios.
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