The Moving Platform Aftereffect: Limited Generalisation of a Locomotor Adaptation

We have recently described a postural aftereffect of walking onto a stationary platform previously experienced as moving, which occurs despite full knowledge that the platform will no longer move. This experiment involves an initial baseline period, when the platform is kept stationary (BEFORE condition), followed by a brief adaptation period when subjects learn to walk onto the platform moving at 1.2m/s (MOVING condition). Subjects are then clearly warned that the platform will no longer move, and asked to walk onto it again (AFTER condition). Despite the warning, they walk towards the platform with a velocity greater than that observed during the BEFORE condition, and a large forward sway of the trunk is observed once they have landed on the platform. This aftereffect, which disappears within three trials, represents dissociation of knowledge and action. In the current set of experiments, to gain further insight into this phenomenon we have manipulated 3 variables, the context, location and method of the walking task, between the MOVING and AFTER conditions, to determine how far the adaptation will generalise. It was found that when the gait initiation cue was changed from beeps to a flashing light, or vice-versa, there was no difference in the magnitude of the aftereffect, either in terms of walking velocity or forward sway of the trunk. Changing the leg with which gait was initiated, however, reduced sway magnitude by approximately 50%. When subjects changed from forward walking to backward walking, the aftereffect was abolished. Similarly, walking in a location other than the mobile platform did not produce any aftereffect. However, in these latter two experiments, the aftereffect reappeared when subjects reverted to the walking pattern used during the MOVING condition. Hence, these results show that a change in abstract context had no influence, whereas any deviation from the way and location in