Biology subjects

Geisler, C.

Publications and source records attributed to Geisler, C..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Altering sensory cues for spatial navigation does not impose a dual-task effect on gait and balance

Walking is an attentionally demanding process that draws from a limited pool of attentional resources. Dual-task assessments, where individuals perform a cognitive task while walking, often reveal changes in gait and balance due to competing attentional demands. As cognitive task difficulty increases, the attentional resources necessary to complete the task also increase, leading to greater interference with gait and balance. However, these interactions are typically examined using contrived lab-based tasks, leaving it unclear how the cognitive processes engaged during real-world movement impact walking. In the present study, we investigated whether increasing the attentional demand of spatial navigation, a cognitive process intrinsically linked to movement, interferes with gait and balance. Healthy adults completed an ambulatory virtual reality homing task in which they walked through a virtual environment and navigated to previously visited locations while wearing ankle and lumbar trackers. We increased the attentional demand of navigation by removing sensory cues during this homing phase: full cues, visual cues only, or self-motion cues only. Navigation performance declined as sensory cues were removed, but we observed no corresponding changes in their spatiotemporal gait and balance metrics. These results show that, in healthy adults, increasing the attentional demand of spatial navigation does not interfere with gait and balance during real-world movement. This finding suggests that locomotor control may be robust to navigation-related cognitive demands. Further research is needed to determine why navigation did not interfere with mobility and to clarify the relationship between these two interconnected processes.

physiology↗

bioRxiv2025

Misalignment between perceived and actual ability on a balance beam walking task

Effective dynamic balance control is necessary to maintain stability, but it is an individuals self-perceived ability that ultimately determines movement selection. Accurate self-estimation of balance ability is therefore essential to ensure that movement choices align with true capability. This study examined individuals perception of their ability on a clinically standardized Narrowing Beam Walking Task (NBWT) to examine 1) the initial perception of balance ability before attempting the task, and 2) how experience completing the task improves the accuracy of self-perceived balance. Collegiate athletes provided self-estimates of performance at baseline (before any trials with the task), early-training (after completing two trials), and post-training (after a further 8 trials). Actual task performance was quantified using the final 8 trials. At baseline, athletes poorly estimated their ability: individuals with poorer task performance tended to overestimate their ability while higher-performing individuals tended to underestimate their ability. With practice, absolute estimation error significantly decreased, indicating that task-specific exposure facilitated recalibration to bring self-estimates of performance in closer alignment to actual performance. These effects were consistent across all tested sporting disciplines. These findings show that effective balance control and frequent engagement in similar, but unrelated balance tasks, does not facilitate accurate self-perception of performance on the NBWT. Instead, brief task-specific exposure was required to refine balance estimates. These findings have implications for balance testing and rehabilitation that seeks to improve mobility in populations whose misjudgments of balance ability are often associated with negative outcomes, such as falls.

physiology↗