Author(s): BAKER, A., CINELLI, M., Institution: WILFRID LAURIER UNIVERSITY, Country: CANADA, Abstract-ID: 1108

INTRODUCTION:
Successful navigation through dynamic environments requires continuous coupling between visual information and action. Athletic training may enhance perceptual–motor control by improving the ability to extract and use visual information to regulate movement. Football athletes, in particular, are frequently exposed to rapidly changing spatial constraints that demand collision avoidance and adaptive locomotor control. The purpose of this study was to examine whether varsity football athletes differ from non-athletes in visual information use and movement regulation during a dynamic virtual collision-avoidance task.
METHODS:
Twenty-three young adults (15 non-athletes, 8 varsity football athletes) completed a virtual reality street-crossing task while wearing an HTC Vive Pro 2 head-mounted display. Participants walked toward an intersection as two sets of virtual pedestrians crossed their path at speeds scaled to individual preferred walking speed (0.7–1.2×). Participants were instructed to safely pass through the intersection without colliding. Kinematic data were recorded at 90 Hz. Outcome measures included time of avoidance, coefficient of variation of walking speed, head yaw variability, right β-angle at the time of avoidance, time to contact, and gap size. Data were analyzed using mixed ANOVAs (α = .05).
RESULTS:
A significant main effect of pedestrian speed was observed for walking speed variability (p < .01), with variability increasing as pedestrian speed increased. Athletes demonstrated greater overall speed variability compared to non-athletes. Athletes also exhibited significantly greater head yaw variability across conditions (p < .01), indicating increased visual scanning behavior. Right β-angle at the time of avoidance was significantly influenced by speed (p < .01), with no group differences, suggesting both groups relied on β-angle information to regulate movement. Time to contact differed across speed conditions (p = .011), while no significant group differences were observed for gap size selection.
CONCLUSION:
Football athletes demonstrated greater head yaw variability and greater modulation of walking speed compared to non-athletes, suggesting enhanced visual exploration and locomotor adaptability. However, both groups relied on β-angle information to initiate speed adjustments and selected similar gap sizes, indicating comparable use of key visual cues and perceived action boundaries. These findings suggest that sport expertise may enhance perceptual–motor adaptability during dynamic collision avoidance without fundamentally altering affordance perception. Enhanced visual scanning and speed regulation may reflect training-related adaptations in perception–action coupling.