When walking on an uneven surface or complex terrain, humans tend to gaze downward. This behaviour is usually interpreted as an attempt to acquire useful information to guide locomotion. Visual information, however, is not used exclusively for guiding locomotion; it is also useful for postural control. Both locomotive and postural control have been shown to be sensitive to the visual flow arising from the respective motion of the individual and the three-dimensional environment. This flow changes when a person gazes downward and may present information that is more appropriate for postural control. To investigate whether downward gazing can be used for postural control, rather than exclusively for guiding locomotion, we quantified the dynamics of standing and walking posture in healthy adults, under several visual conditions. Through these experiments we were able to demonstrate that gazing downward, just a few steps ahead, resulted in a steadier standing and walking posture. These experiments indicate that gazing downward may serve more than one purpose and provide sufficient evidence of the possible interplay between the visual information used for guiding locomotion and that used for postural control. These findings contribute to our understanding of the control mechanism/s underlying gait and posture and have possible clinical implications.

当在崎uneven不平的地面或复杂的地形上行走时，人类倾向于向下凝视。此行为通常被解释为尝试获取有用的信息以指导运动。但是，视觉信息并非专门用于引导运动。这对于姿势控制也很有用。已经表明，机车和姿势控制都对由个体和三维环境的各自运动引起的视觉流动敏感。当人向下凝视时，此流程会更改，并且可能会显示更适合姿势控制的信息。为了研究向下凝视是否可用于姿势控制，而不是仅用于引导运动，我们在几种视觉条件下，对健康成年人站立和行走姿势的动力学进行了量化。通过这些实验，我们能够证明向下凝视，向前仅几步，就形成了稳定的站立和行走姿势。这些实验表明，向下凝视可能有多个目的，并为用于引导运动的视觉信息和用于姿势控制的视觉信息之间的相互作用提供了充分的证据。这些发现有助于我们对控制机制的基本步态和姿势的理解，并可能具有临床意义。这些实验表明，向下凝视可能有多个目的，并为用于引导运动的视觉信息和用于姿势控制的视觉信息之间的相互作用提供了充分的证据。这些发现有助于我们对控制机制的基本步态和姿势的理解，并可能具有临床意义。这些实验表明，向下凝视可能有多个目的，并为用于引导运动的视觉信息和用于姿势控制的视觉信息之间的相互作用提供了充分的证据。这些发现有助于我们对控制机制的基本步态和姿势的理解，并可能具有临床意义。