Eye and hand movement strategies in older adults during a complex reaching task

Abstract

The kinematics of upper limb movements and the coordination of eye and hand movements are affected by aging. These age differences are exacerbated when task difficulty is increased, but the exact nature of these differences remains to be established.We examined the performance of 12 older adults (mean age = 74) and 11 younger adults (mean age = 20) on a multi-phase prehension task. Participants had to reach for a target ball with their preferred hand, pick it up and place it in a tray, then reach for a second target ball and place that in the same tray. On half the trials (stabilising condition) participants were required to hold the tray just above the surface of the table with their non-preferred hand and keep it as still as possible. Hand and eye movements were recorded. Older adults took longer to complete their movements and reached lower peak velocities than the younger adults. Group differences were most apparent in the stabilising condition, suggesting that the added complexity had a greater effect on the performance of the older adults than the young. During pick-up, older adults preferred to make an eye movement to the next target as soon as possible, but spent longer fixating the current target during placement, when accuracy requirements were higher. These latter observations suggest that older adults employed a task-dependent eye movement strategy; looking quickly to the next target to allow more time for planning and execution when possible, but fixating on their hand and successful placement of the ball when necessary.

Eye–Hand Coordination Impairment in Glaucoma Patients

“…Impartments in eye–hand coordination start to appear with advancing age [26,47,48,49]. In our study, a decrease in the aiming index and deterioration in tremor task parameters occurred with increasing age.…”

“…Co-ordination of eye and hand movements is affected by ageing. Coast et al [26] observed that older adults move more slowly than younger adults during a complex reaching task, reaching lower peak velocities and taking longer to complete the movement. Additionally, increased complexity of motor tasks is known to enhance difficulties for older adults in controlling manual movements [27].…”

A New Neurocognitive Interpretation of Shoulder Position Sense during Reaching: Unexpected Competence in the Measurement of Extracorporeal Space

“…Further, the kinematics of upper limb movements and the coordination of eye and hand movements are affected by aging, forcing older adults to use a task-dependent eye movement strategy [11]. The subtle changes that occur with age thus appear to reflect a strategy that develops to compensate for deterioration in other systems, such as visual and proprioceptive activity [12].…”

The importance of visuo-motor coordination in upper limb rehabilitation after ischemic stroke by robotic therapy

“…Therefore eye-hand coordination (also known as eye-hand coupling, visuo-manual coordination or oculo-manual synergy) physiology is defined as the coordinated control of eye movements associated with the fine movements of the hands toward a given target, reaching the target and performing the desired work (32). Good directed movements of the upper limb is provided by a large number of neural mechanisms: detection of the target in a three dimensional space (by visual perception), space assessment of the body and of the upper limbs, evaluation of the muscle tone (by proprioception) and execution on-line guidance of the hand trajectory (33)(34)(35). In fact, the essence of eye-hand coordination is the result of the very detailed coupling in space and time of kinetic learning mechanisms.…”