Behavioral risk models explain locomotor and balance changes when walking at virtual heights: Experiment 2 Data

Experiment 2 used a virtual circular ring walkway with a 0.4 m width (1.2 m inner-radius and 1.6 outer-radius). The virtual walkway had a matching 1.27 cm high physical walkway in the laboratory to enable proprioceptive feedback of the walkway edge (Figure 3a). In addition to the two VR trackers placed laterally around the ankles, two VR hand controllers (HTC Vive) were placed in a waistbelt and located over the approximate location of navel and L2-L3 lumbar vertebrae to capture estimated center-of-mass (CoM) kinematics using the average of the two VR hand controllers’ position.Participants completed four 40-second walking trials within the VR environment at their constant, self-selected speed: (1) walking at ground level (No Threat, g); (2) walking at high elevation with a threat on both sides (Bilateral Threat, b); (3) walking at high elevation with an inner threat (Inner Threat, i); and (4) walking at high elevation with an outer threat (Outer Threat, o). The Bilateral, Inner, and Outer threat conditions presented the circular walkway suspended approximately 15 meters above the ground. The No Threat condition was always presented first; the order of the remaining three conditions (Bilateral, Inner, Outer) was randomized across participants. The motion trackers recorded positional data using four lighthouse-based infrared sensors, where the center of the walkway served as the origin of the positional data.Raw positional data is provided for each trial for each participant. Processing scripts and statistical analysis scripts are also provided to generate primary outcomes and analyses.