The effects of different environments on older adults' ability to successfully cross a closing gap in virtual reality.

Background: To navigate through dynamically changing environments and to avoid collisions with stationary and moving obstacles, older adults tend to over rely on their visual system because it is a more reliable source of information. Aging affects both visuomotor integration and visual perception, often resulting in the inability to produce appropriate adaptive locomotor actions in a timely manner.

Research Question: Does peripheral visual information in the environment affected older adults' ability to complete a gap-crossing task with a set of closing doors at different rates (0.6-1.2 m/s)?

Methods: Fifteen older adults (65-74 years) completed the study inside a virtual environment with three different levels of peripheral visual information: 1) empty; 2) stationary avatars; and 3) moving avatars. Kinematic data was collected using an Optotrak camera system to track the older adults' body movements during the task.

Results: The results demonstrated that regardless of the environment or closing door speed, older adults maintained consistent approach speeds. However, older adults collided with the fastest moving doors a significant number of times at the fastest door closing rates for the empty and moving avatar conditions.

Significance: Although it appears that older adults are able to attend on a central task (i.e., passing through closing doors) and maintain constant behaviours regardless of the visual information from peripheral environment, richness of the peripheral environment provides accurate feedback about self-motion affects success rates.