Altered steering strategies for goal-directed locomotion in stroke

The aim of the study was to examine the effects of changing optic flow and target location on goal-oriented heading in stroke. Two subjects with stroke and two healthy older subjects participated in a mouse-driven steering task while seated and a walking steering task. In the sitting experiment, stroke subjects showed less heading errors than older subjects, while in the walking experiment they had larger heading errors than older subjects. Results support the feasibility of using a virtual reality-based task to assess steering strategies in stroke and healthy older subjects.