Fabricio Saucedo

Penn State Altoona

Self-talk pertains to phrases individuals recite aloud or internally to increase motivation and focus and is a frequently used psychological skill that promotes enhanced sport performance. Several studies have examined how different these forms of self-talk can affect the execution of specific tasks in sport, but few have examined if self-talk can...

Older runners (OR) are increasing their participation in races. Aging may impact the adopted running pattern. Hence, the analysis of stiffness and the inter-joint lower limb coordination in the sagittal plane could contribute to investigating this impact. This study aimed to compare the vertical stiffness (Kvert) and the inter-joint lower limb coor...

Background. Unusual gaze behavior in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) was reported very early in the literature. Objectives. The current study examined gaze behavior in children with ASD and typically developing (TD) children while performing an active balance task on the Wii balance board. Methods: 8 children (male) diagnosed with high...

Background: Falling is the second leading cause of injury-related death worldwide and is a leading cause of injury among older adults. Whole-body vibration has been used to improve balance and reduce fall risk in older adults. No study has assessed if vibration benefits can be retained over time. Objectives: The aims of this study were to examine i...

Changing the direction of locomotion, often referred to as “steering”, is an integral component of human locomotion. This study sought to investigate the role of cognition in steering using a dual task paradigm in healthy young and healthy older adults. Twenty-five healthy young adults and nineteen healthy older adults completed a 900 walking turn...

The addition of a load during walking requires changes in the movement pattern. The investigation of the dynamic joint stiffness behavior may help to understand the lower limb joints’ contribution to these changes. This study aimed to investigate the dynamic stiffness of lower limb joints in response to the increased load carried while walking. Thi...

Background. Falling is the second leading cause of injury-related death worldwide and is a leading cause of injury among older adults. Whole-body vibration has been used to improve fall risk factors in older adults. No study has assessed if vibration benefits can be retained over time. Objectives. The aims of this study were to examine if six-weeks...

The purpose of this pilot study was to establish the efficacy and feasibility of a single-session treadmill-based stance-slip perturbation program on preventing slip-related falls while walking over the ground among young adults. Two groups (training vs. control) of healthy young participants were respectively exposed to a treadmill-based stance-sl...

Background: Only very recently, studies have shown that it is possible to reduce the metabolic rate of unloaded and loaded walking using robotic ankle exoskeletons. Some studies obtained this result by means of high positive work assistance while others combined negative and positive work assistance. There is no consensus about the isolated contri...

The purposes of this study were 1) to investigate the effect of visual deprivation on stability during treadmill walking in older and young adults, and 2) to examine if such an effect differs between age groups. Under the protection of a safety harness, 10 young (23.20 ± 2.44 years) and six older adults (67.83 ± 2.48 years) participants performed t...

Walking and turning is a movement that places individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) at increased risk for fall-related injury. However, turning is an essential movement in activities of daily living, making up to 45 % of the total steps taken in a given day. Hypotheses regarding how turning is controlled suggest an essential role of anticipator...

Conference paper AMAM, Cambridge MA, June 2015

ABSTRACT Turning, while walking, is an important component of adaptive locomotion. Current hypotheses regarding the motor control of body segment coordination during turning suggest heavy influence of visual information. The authors aimed to examine whether visual field impairment (central loss or peripheral loss) affects body segment coordination...

Healthy young adults (YA) use different turning strategies when required to fixate their gaze. When free to make eye movements, a clear top-down turning sequence, where the eyes move first followed by the head, and body occurs. However, when YAs are required to fixate their gaze on a fixed target a clear bottom-up (pelvis to eyes) sequence occurs....

Maintaining posture requires the input from three primary sensory systems. These systems include somatosensory, visual, and vestibular components. Of these three systems, the visual and vestibular systems work closest to maintain balance and posture due to visual-vestibular interactions that take place during static and dynamic activities. They are...

Background / Purpose: To examine how body segment coordination alters in response to an acute loss of peripheral or central vision during a 90-degree turn. Main conclusion: Visual information derived from central vision contributes critical information to the central nervous system for turning control.

Humans use a specific steering synergy, where the eyes and head lead rotation to the new direction, when executing a turn or change in direction. Increasing evidence suggests that eye movement is critical for turning control and that when the eyes are constrained, or participants have difficulties making eye movements, steering control is disrupted...