Gaze Control During Walking: A Gateway to Understanding Sensory and Cognitive Functioning, Dynamic Postural Control, and Fall Risk in Older Adults
Falls among older adults represent a pressing public health concern, and often result from the interaction of intrinsic capacities, e.g. decreased visual abilities, with complex environments, e.g. busy streets. These environments demand individuals to effectively track moving objects using their gaze for safe navigation. In this project, I propose that a better understanding of gaze control, its contributing factors, and its role in fall risk, is crucial for the development of more accurate fall prediction models. Current research on fall prediction occurs in controlled laboratory settings and employs simple tasks without ecological validity that neglect the role of gaze control in real-life navigation. Despite the link between gaze control and known fall risk factors (e.g. sensory and cognitive deficits and decreased postural control), the integration of these functions for ensuring gaze control remains unknown. In this project I position gaze control as a proxy to understanding sensory, cognitive, and motor functioning in relation to falls in older adults. Additionally, I hypothesize that by integrating gaze control in current fall prediction models, we can more accurately predict the likelihood of falls. My study represents an inventive yet challenging paradigm that significantly advances prior methodologies, overcoming technological limitations by leveraging Augmented Reality tools to simulate realistic but standardized tasks while concurrently tracking gaze control.
More information: https://researchportal.vub.be/en/projects/gaze-control-during-walking-a-gateway-to-understanding-sensory-an
Funding: FWO Post-doc Elissa Embrechts
RERE PI: Prof. David Beckwée