Changes to online control and eye-hand coordination with healthy ageing

dc.contributor.authorO'Rielly, J.
dc.contributor.authorMa-Wyatt, A.
dc.date.issued2018
dc.description.abstractGoal directed movements are typically accompanied by a saccade to the target location. Online control plays an important part in correction of a reach, especially if the target or goal of the reach moves during the reach. While there are notable changes to visual processing and motor control with healthy ageing, there is limited evidence about how eye-hand coordination during online updating changes with healthy ageing. We sought to quantify differences between older and younger people for eye-hand coordination during online updating. Participants completed a double step reaching task implemented under time pressure. The target perturbation could occur 200, 400 and 600 ms into a reach. We measured eye position and hand position throughout the trials to investigate changes to saccade latency, movement latency, movement time, reach characteristics and eye-hand latency and accuracy. Both groups were able to update their reach in response to a target perturbation that occurred at 200 or 400 ms into the reach. All participants demonstrated incomplete online updating for the 600 ms perturbation time. Saccade latencies, measured from the first target presentation, were generally longer for older participants. Older participants had significantly increased movement times but there was no significant difference between groups for touch accuracy. We speculate that the longer movement times enable the use of new visual information about the target location for online updating towards the end of the movement. Interestingly, older participants also produced a greater proportion of secondary saccades within the target perturbation condition and had generally shorter eye-hand latencies. This is perhaps a compensatory mechanism as there was no significant group effect on final saccade accuracy. Overall, the pattern of results suggests that online control of movements may be qualitatively different in older participants.
dc.description.statementofresponsibilityJessica L.O'Rielly, AnnaMa-Wyatt
dc.identifier.citationHuman Movement Science, 2018; 59:244-257
dc.identifier.doi10.1016/j.humov.2018.04.013
dc.identifier.issn0167-9457
dc.identifier.issn1872-7646
dc.identifier.orcidO'Rielly, J. [0000-0003-2446-9922]
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2440/118531
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherElsevier
dc.rightsCrown Copyright © 2018 Published by E lsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
dc.source.urihttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.humov.2018.04.013
dc.subjectAgeing; online control; double-step task; saccade; eye movement; reaching
dc.titleChanges to online control and eye-hand coordination with healthy ageing
dc.typeJournal article
pubs.publication-statusPublished

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