Does my step look big in this? A visual illusion leads to safer stepping behaviour.

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Does my step look big in this? A visual illusion leads to safer stepping behaviour. PLoS ONE. 2009;4(2):e4577 Authors: Elliott DB, Vale A, Whitaker D, Buckley JG BACKGROUND: Tripping is a common factor in falls and a typical safety strategy to avoid tripping on steps or stairs is to increase foot clearance over the step edge. In the present study we asked whether the perceived height of a step could be increased using a visual illusion and whether this would lead to the adoption of a safer stepping strategy, in terms of greater foot clearance over the step edge. The study also addressed the controversial question of whether motor actions are dissociated from visual perception. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: 21 young, healthy subjects perceived the step to be higher in a configuration of the horizontal-vertical illusion compared to a reverse configuration (p = 0.01). During a simple stepping task, maximum toe elevation changed by an amount corresponding to the size of the visual illusion (p