Lower-Limb Strategy Assessment during a Virtual Reality based Dual-Motor-Task

The technical development of the virtual reality platform provides multiple levels to understand human behaviors in simulated environments and to develop interventions for functional rehabilitation. In this study, a dual-task paradigm in a virtual environment is designed where both tasks demand motor skills. Three healthy adults (mean age: 24.3 years) participated in this study. The experiment involved two conditions of overground walking in virtual reality - normal walking and catch and throw a ball while walking. In this work, we investigated the dual-task gait characteristics and the strategy adopted at the lower limb to perform better in the secondary task of throwing the ball. Results show that more balls were thrown during the terminal stance and pre-swing phase of the dominant leg. Thus, the participants utilized the forward momentum built during the foot-to-foot transition by the lagging dominant foot while throwing. This study provides a new and engaging paradigm to analyze dual-motor-task in a virtual reality environment. It can be used as a powerful tool to characterize gait and cognitive performance measures in individuals.