Concern about falling is associated with segmental control when turning in older adults.

Background: Healthy young adults typically exhibit a progressive 'top-down' reorientation of body segments (i.e., head, trunk, then pelvis) during turning.

Conscious Movement Processing, Fall-Related Anxiety, and the Visuomotor Control of Locomotion in Older Adults.

Objectives: Older adults anxious about falling will often consciously process walking movements in an attempt to avoid falling. They also fixate their gaze on the present step rather than looking ahead to plan future actions. The present work examined whether conscious movement strategies result in such restricted visual planning.

Re-evaluating the measurement and influence of conscious movement processing on gait performance in older adults: Development of the Gait-Specific Attentional Profile.

Background: Recent decades have seen increased interest in how anxiety-and associated changes in conscious movement processing (CMP)-can influence the control of balance and gait, particularly in older adults. However, the most prevalent scale used to measure CMP during gait (the Movement-Specific Reinvestment Scale (MSRS)) is generic (i.e.

Evidence of a Link Between Fall-Related Anxiety and High-Risk Patterns of Visual Search in Older Adults During Adaptive Locomotion.

Background: Older adults deemed to be at a high risk of falling will often display visual search behaviors likely to impair movement planning when negotiating environmental hazards. It has been proposed that these behaviors may be underpinned by fall-related anxiety. Thus, the aim of this study was to explore the effects of fall-related anxiety on visual search and stepping behaviors during adaptive gait.

Exploring attentional focus of older adult fallers during heightened postural threat.

Objectives: Threats to balance, and subsequent increases in fall-related anxiety, can disrupt attentional processing during gait in older adults, leading to behavioral adaptations which may increase fall risk. However, limited research has investigated what changes in attention occur to contribute to these disruptions. The aim of this research was to describe changes in attention that occur during gait when older adults' balance is threatened, while exploring how previous fall history and trait movement reinvestment (conscious monitoring and control of movement) also influence attention.

Gazing into Thin Air: The Dual-Task Costs of Movement Planning and Execution during Adaptive Gait.

We examined the effect of increased cognitive load on visual search behavior and measures of gait performance during locomotion. Also, we investigated how personality traits, specifically the propensity to consciously control or monitor movements (trait movement 'reinvestment'), impacted the ability to maintain effective gaze under conditions of cognitive load. Healthy young adults traversed a novel adaptive walking path while performing a secondary serial subtraction task.

Dynamic walking features and improved walking performance in multiple sclerosis patients treated with fampridine (4-aminopyridine).

Background: Impaired walking capacity is a frequent confinement in Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Patients are affected by limitations in coordination, walking speed and the distance they may cover. Also abnormal dynamic walking patterns have been reported, involving continuous deceleration over time.

Anxiety, anticipation and contextual information: A test of attentional control theory.

We tested the assumptions of Attentional Control Theory (ACT) by examining the impact of anxiety on anticipation using a dynamic, time-constrained task. Moreover, we examined the involvement of high- and low-level cognitive processes in anticipation and how their importance may interact with anxiety. Skilled and less-skilled tennis players anticipated the shots of opponents under low- and high-anxiety conditions.