Throwing strategy in a dual-motor-task of aiming at the bullseye while walking in virtual reality

Abstract

Humans perform movement tasks using motor and cognitive skills. The optimum outcome of the task is dependent on how the motor and cognitive skills are combined. When a dual-task is performed, this combination becomes even more important as the user has to devote limited available attention to the competing tasks. In this study, a ball throwing task to a specified location was performed in a virtual environment while the participant walked on a treadmill performing a dual-motor-task. Fifteen healthy participants took part in the study. The task paradigm involved three conditions - warm-up treadmill walking, throwing a ball to the target while standing, and throwing a ball to the target while walking on a treadmill. The throwing strategy was investigated with quantifiable task-space performance and scoring in the game. The correlation between the task-space performance and the cognitive tests was evaluated in the single and the dual-motor-task. Results demonstrate that during the throwing activity in the single and the dual-motor tasks, the choice of orienting the throwing plane in space was pre-determined prior to releasing the ball in a projectile motion and was interconnected with the motor ability. However, in dual-tasking, once the throwing plane was selected, the variation of hit point localization in the target plane was correlated with the cognitive ability. The task was executed with an allocation of motor and cognitive abilities to control specific performance variables while dual-tasking. This strategy potentially helped participants to reduce the load on attentional capacity during dual-tasking. This study showcases an optimized utilization of skill interaction to achieve the overall task objective. The paradigm designed in this work can be utilized to improve specific motor and cognitive skills by performing only one dual-motor-task.