A Treadmill Training Program Augmented by Virtual Reality to Decrease Fall Risk in Older Adults

subjects will be walking on a treadmill while negotiating virtual obstacles provided by a computer simulation. The virtual environment will consist of obstacles, different pathways, narrow corridors and distracters, requiring modulations of step amplitude in two planes (i.e., height and width) coordinated with walking behaviour. The speed, orientation, size, frequency of appearance and shape of the targets will be manipulated according to individual needs following a standardized protocol.

The participants will walk on the treadmill, their gait speed over-ground will be measured at the beginning of each week of training. Progression will include increasing the duration of each of the walking bouts and increasing walking speed.