Anticipation of wheelchair and rollerblade actions in spinal cord injured people, rollerbladers, and physiotherapists

PLoS ONE, 2019 · DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0213838 · Published: March 15, 2019

Simple Explanation

The study explores how spinal cord injury (SCI) affects the ability to understand and predict the actions of others, focusing on actions involving wheelchairs and rollerblades. The researchers compared SCI patients to physiotherapists (with visual expertise in wheelchairs) and rollerbladers (with motor expertise in rollerblades) to see how sensorimotor experience influences action anticipation. The findings suggest that motor experience, even when acquired after a spinal cord injury, plays a crucial role in the ability to anticipate actions, supporting the idea that our understanding of the world is grounded in our physical experiences.

Study Duration

Not specified

Participants

36 participants: 12 spinal cord injury (SCI), 12 physiotherapists (PHY), 12 rollerbladers (SKA)

Evidence Level

Not specified

Key Findings

1
SCI participants performed better at anticipating actions involving wheelchairs, suggesting they developed expertise in this area after their injury.
2
SCI participants performed worse at anticipating actions involving rollerblades compared to both physiotherapists and rollerbladers, indicating that the inability to perform an action hinders understanding it.
3
Physiotherapists, despite having visual expertise with wheelchairs, did not perform as well as SCI participants, suggesting that motor experience is more important than visual knowledge for action anticipation.

Research Summary

This study investigates how spinal cord injury (SCI) affects action anticipation by comparing SCI patients, physiotherapists (PHY), and rollerbladers (SKA) in predicting the outcomes of wheelchair and rollerblade actions using a temporal occlusion task. The results indicate that SCI participants exhibit enhanced anticipation skills for wheelchair actions, reflecting their post-lesion motor expertise, but impaired anticipation for rollerblade actions, highlighting the role of sensorimotor experience. The findings support embodied cognition theories, suggesting that motor experience is crucial for action understanding, even after neurological lesions, and that visual expertise alone is insufficient for accurate action anticipation.

Practical Implications

Rehabilitation Strategies

Incorporate motor training to improve action understanding in SCI patients.

Assistive Technology Design

Consider user's motor experience when designing assistive technologies.

Embodied Cognition Research

Further investigate the link between motor experience and cognitive functions.

Study Limitations

1
Sample size was relatively small.
2
Study did not assess the neural mechanisms underlying the observed effects.
3
The emotional valence of the stimuli may have influenced the participants' responses.

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