Abstract

Visual cognition research into human locomotion traditionally concentrates on the role of vision in helping us to avoid obstacles or tripping on uneven terrain, on the distinction between movements of others and self-motion, on navigating complex environments, or on reaching target locations. At the same time, locomotion research primarily focuses on the biomechanics, describing human gait as a highly automated and well encapsulated process: we can walk with our eyes closed and run through a forest so quickly that it seems almost impossible for cognition to be involved. Accordingly, current biomechanical models on gait acknowledge a need for visual and cognitive input, but do not usually include it.

In this talk, Dr Ute Leonards will claim that we need to merge these largely separate disciplines and begin to investigate the dynamics between visual perception, cognition and locomotion, if we want to find solutions to pressing societal issues such as understanding falls risk in an ageing population or creating healthy environments for everybody. In a series of experiments, she will provide evidence that the interplay between vision and gait is based on similar principles as known for other vision and action systems, including their relation to cognitive load. She will finish her talk with an outlook that goes beyond the research laboratory to modern urban design and testing its impact on people’s gait in the outside world.

Biography

Ute Leonards is a Reader in Neuropsychology at the School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol. After a degree in biology (Dipl. Biol.) and a PhD at the University of Mainz, Germany, she worked in the visual neurosciences at the Max-Planck-Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt, Germany, followed by post-doctoral periods at the College-de-France in Paris, France and the Katholieke Universiteit in Leuven, Belgium. This was followed by a tenure research position at the Neuroimaging Unit in the Department of Psychiatry, University Hospitals of Geneva, Switzerland. Her main interests lie in understanding the link between vision and action in humans. Her work covers the investigation of perceptual, attentional and other cognitive changes and their impact on movement over the entire life span in healthy volunteers and various groups of neurological and psychiatric patients.

http://www.bristol.ac.uk/expsych/people/ute-b-leonards/index.html