Automaticity of walking – implications for physiotherapy practice

Automaticity is the term used to indicate that a skill is performed with little demand on attentional resources. One of the features of everyday tasks performed by healthy people is their automaticity. For example, walking is normally automated so that it is possible to perform additional tasks, such as talking and/or buttoning a jacket, concurrently. This review examines models of attention underlying automaticity, methods to improve automaticity, measurement of automaticity and implications of this information for physiotherapy practice. A measure of automaticity, an automaticity index, is proposed which enables studies to be compared, patients to be assessed and interventions to be evaluated. Strategies for assessment and training of automaticity in clinical practice are outlined using the everyday task of walking as an example.