Abstract
BACKGROUND: The relationship between gaze behavior and postural stability under distinct cognitive loads is still unclear in children. AIM: This study focuses on eye movements' effect on the children's postural stability by varying the visual tasks' attentional/cognitive demands. METHOD: Twenty young adults (23.4 years-old, ± 2.1) and sixteen children (10.3 years-old, ± 0.4) stand in semi- tandem position on a force plate, wearing a head-mounted eye-tracking while performing three 40 second-trials in the following order: stationary gaze task; free-viewing task; and visual searching task. RESULTS: Children showed a higher number of fixations during the stationary gaze task (p<0.0001), but this number was lower during free-viewing (p<0.004) and visual searching tasks (p<0.0001) when compared to young adults. Total fixation duration was lower in children than in young adults (p<0.0001) and higher during stationary gaze task than free-viewing (p<0.0001) and visual searching tasks (p<0.0001) for both groups. CONCLUSION: These results indicate that the performance of the visual searching task during the maintenance of a challenging stance may deteriorate children’s postural stability suggesting that the relationship between gaze behavior and postural control is not well developed around the age of 10 years.
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