Conscious movement processing could disrupt movement fluidity by interfering with automatic movement control, potentially leading to changes in gait and gaze patterns during walking especially under environmental challenges or distractions. This study aims to compare gait pattern and gaze behaviour between individuals with high and low conscious movement processing propensity in older adults at risk of falling during adaptive locomotion. Fifty-three older adults (mean age=72.2±3.8) were included in this analysis. Participants were divided into two groups, either the Low Reinvestor Group (LRG;n=27) or the High Reinvestor Group (HRG;n=26), by a median split of the Chinese version of Movement Specific Reinvestment Scale (MSRS-C), which assessed conscious movement processing propensity. Each participant performed five trials, navigating an obstacle while walking along a pathway at a self-selected pace. Gait patterns were assessed using spatial and temporal gait parameters. Gaze behaviour was measured by the number of fixation and fixation duration percentage on specific area of interests. We observed a significant main effect of group for stride length (F[1,50]=16.889, p<0.001), step length (F[1,50]=16.89, p<0.001), step width (F[1,50]=6.714, p=0.013), and gait speed (F[1,50]=7.105, p=0.01). HRG demonstrated significantly smaller stride length, step length, step width, and slower gait speed than LRG. No significant differences were found in gaze behaviour. We discovered a potentially different gait pattern (independent of gaze behaviour) between older adults with different conscious movement processing propensities during adaptive locomotion. Further research is needed to investigate the specific features of altered gait pattern observed in HRG and its implications for the risk of falling.

Authors:
Thomson Wai-Lung Wong, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China
Toby C.T. Mak, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China
Melody C.Y. Leung, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China
Shamay S.M. Ng, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China

About the Presenter(s)
Dr Wai Lung, Thomson Wong is a University Assistant Professor/Lecturer at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University in China

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