Visuo-manual Coordination Research Articles

Using kinematic analyses to explore sensorimotor control impairments in children with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome

BackgroundThe 22q11.2 deletion is associated with psychiatric and behavioural disorders, intellectual disability and multiple physical abnormalities. Recent research also indicates impaired coordination skills may be part of the clinical phenotype. This study aimed to characterise sensorimotor control abilities in children with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2DS) and investigate their relationships with co-occurring IQ impairments and psychopathology.MethodsFifty-four children with 22q11.2DS and 24 unaffected sibling controls, comparable in age and gender, underwent kinematic analysis of their hand movements, whilst performing a battery of three visuo-manual coordination tasks that measured their tracking, aiming and steering abilities. Additionally, standardised assessments of full-scale IQ (FSIQ), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, indicative autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and anxiety disorder symptomatology were conducted.ResultsChildren with 22q11.2DS showed deficits on seven of eight kinematic descriptors of movement quality across the three coordination tasks, compared to controls. Within 22q11.2DS cases, the extent of impairment on only three kinematic descriptors was significantly related to FSIQ after correction for multiple testing. Moreover, only error whilst visuo-manually tracking was nominally associated with ADHD symptom counts.ConclusionsImpairments in sensorimotor control are seen on a range of visuo-manual tasks in children with 22q11.2DS but the extent of these impairments are largely unrelated to the severity of other psychopathological and intellectual impairments commonly found in children with 22q11.2DS.

Visual exploration of reaching space during left and right arm movements in 6-month-old infants

Infant's manual laterality and eye-hand coordination emerge during the second part of the first year of life with the development of reaching. Nevertheless, little is known about the potential asymmetric characteristics of this coordination. The aim of this study was to describe visuo-spatial exploration in 6-month-old infants during reaching, according to the hand used. More specifically, we examined if the use of the left or the right hand was linked to a specific type of visual exploration. Gaze direction during goal-directed reaching towards an object placed on the table was measured with a remote ASL 504 eye tracker (Bedford MA). Twelve babies aged 6 months were observed during six reaching sessions, alterning three sessions with an object on the left side of the subject and three with an object on the right side. Gaze direction and some hand variables (hand activity, hand opening and hand position from the body) were coded with The Observer software. Results showed that babies visually explore their reaching space differently according to the hand used: they look more at the object when they use their right hand and more around the object when they use their left hand; they also look more often at their left hand than at their right one. These results suggest that an asymmetric visuo-manual coordination exists as early as 6 months: vision seems to support (1) left hand during reaching for evaluate distances from object to baby by means of visual feedbacks and (2) right hand for identify what sort of object is. Results are discussed in light of manual specialization and specific hemispheric skills at this age.

Instability of visual error processing for sensorimotor adaptation in schizophrenia.

Saccadic adaptation can be used to study disturbances of sensory processing and motor learning. We investigated whether patients with schizophrenia can adjust saccadic amplitudes to account for an increase in visual error while the saccade is in flight, and whether they transfer this change to a visuo-manual localization task. Fourteen patients (mean 37.1years) and 14 healthy controls (mean 35.1years) performed 200 adaptation trials of 10° with target shifts of 4° in the outward direction. We determined the percent amplitude change during adaptation and adaptation speed. In addition, subjects localized a stimulus that was flashed 50ms after saccade target onset to measure the transfer of change in visual space perception to visuo-manual coordination. Eye movements were recorded at 1000Hz. Saccade amplitudes increased over adaptation trials by 11% (p<0.001) similarly in both groups. Amplitude variability during adaptation was higher in patients (1.06°±0.32°) than in controls (0.71°±0.14°; p=0.001), while adaptation speed was slower in patients (0.02±0.03) than in controls (0.11±0.11; p=0.01). Other pre- and post-adaptation saccade metrics did not differ between groups. The adaptation process shifted localization of the flashed target in the adaptation direction similarly in both groups. The use of error signals for the internal recalibration of sensorimotor systems and the transfer of this recalibration to visual space perception appear basically unimpaired in schizophrenia. Higher amplitude variability in patients suggests a certain instability of saccadic control in cerebellar systems. Patients seem to rely on visual error processing in frontal circuitry, resulting in slower adaptation speeds, despite unimpaired adaptation strength.

Visuo-manual coordination in preterm infants without neurological impairments

The extent of and reasons for visuo-manual coordination deficits in moderate and late preterm born infants without neurological impairments are not well known. This paper presents a longitudinal study on the visuo-manual development of twelve preterm infants, born after 33–36 weeks of gestation without neurological complications, between the ages of 6 and 12 months. Visuo-manual integration and grasping were assessed using the Peabody Developmental Motor Scales, along with bimanual coordination and handedness tests. Visual function was examined once prior to the beginning of the study. Gross motor development was also evaluated every month. Preterm infants were compared to a control group of ten full-term infants according to corrected age.Compared to full-terms, the visual perception of preterm infants was close to normal, with only a measure of visual fixation lower than in full-terms. In contrast, preterm infants had delayed development of visuo-manual integration, grasping, bimanual coordination, and handedness even when compared using corrected age. Tonicity and gestational age at birth were the main variables associated to the delays. These results are discussed in terms of the possible factors underlying such delays. They need to be confirmed on a larger sample of preterm born children, and to be correlated with later development. This would allow developing markers of future neuropsychological impairments during childhood.

Assessment of motor control using kinematics analysis in preschool children born very preterm

The aim of this study was to better understand the mechanisms underlying the motor difficulties encountered by children born very preterm (VPT) without major sequelae from preterm birth. We compared the organization of visuo-manual aiming in preterm and full term (FT) preschool aged children based on performance and kinematics data. Twenty preterm (4 females, 16 males) and 20 sex- and age-matched FT children were divided into two age groups (mean age: 3 years-4 months, and 5 years). Comparison of the performance data showed differences between the older preterm and FT children. Kinematics data revealed differences in movement control between the younger preterm and FT children. The younger FT children did not differ from the older children. In addition, there was an effect of age on both performance and kinematics data for the preterm children only. The pattern of results suggests difficulties in integrating sensory information for movement control in the preterm groups, leading to a delay in the development of visuo-manual coordination. Kinematics analyses may help identify children at risk for poor school performance.

Visuomanual coordination in childhood: adaptation to visual distortion

The aim of the experiment was to study the adaptive capacities of children to perform drawing movements while being visually perturbed. Children aged 5-11 years and a group of adults drew diamonds via information provided through a computer screen. The screen display was either upright or rotated 180 degrees. Results showed that the absence of direct vision of the hand yielded more perturbation in the youngest group of children compared to all other groups. In spite of some initial difficulty, all children reached accurate control after five trials. When faced with spatial rotations of the visual field, youngsters were again more perturbed than others. All children showed the same rate of adaptation to visual rotations, but they differed on adaptive strategies. Five- and 7-year-olds shifted to a feedforward mode of control consisting of the production of a rapid gesture, followed by error evaluation in order to correct their next movement. Older children were characterised by a progressive integration of reafferent visual and proprioceptive information. It resulted in an increase in duration of strokes and reduced speed, meaning enhanced on-line retrieval of information. However, 9-year-old children experienced more difficulty recuperating sensory information during movement than 11-year-olds, and kept using error feedback. Finally, visuomanual coordination in children aged 11 years, while slightly differing from that of adults, was not yet totally mature.

Manual Asymmetries in Reaching Movement Control. II: Study of Left-Handers

Two experiments performed with left-handed subjects investigated how the manual asymmetries and hemispheric specialization involved in visuo-manual coordination are associated with handedness. Pro and retroactive processes involved in rapid movement control were analyzed according to the different movement parameters to be controlled, similar to studies performed with right-handers (Boulinguez, Nougier and Velay, 2001). Manual performances and kinematic properties of reaching movements showed that the left and right hands of left-handers behaved in the same way as the left and right hands of right-handers. Results are discussed in the light of the independence of handedness and other forms of cerebral dominance in sensori-motor information processing involved in hand movements.

Early coding of visuomanual coordination during reaching in parietal area PEc.

The parietal mechanisms of eye-hand coordination during reaching were studied by recording neural activity in area PEc while monkeys performed different tasks, aimed at assessing the influence of retinal, hand-, and eye-related signals on neural activity. The tasks used consisted of 1) reaching to foveated and 2) to extra-foveal targets, with constant eye position; and 3) saccadic eye movement toward, and holding of eye position on peripheral targets, the same as those of the reaching tasks. In all tasks, hand and/or eye movements were made from a central position to eight peripheral targets. A conventional visual fixation paradigm was used as a control task, to assess location and extent of visual receptive field of neurons. A large proportion of cells in area PEc displayed significant relationships to hand movement direction and position. Many of them were also related to the eye's position. Relationships to saccadic eye movements were found for a smaller proportion of cells. Most neurons were tuned to different combination of hand- and eye-related signals; some of them were also influenced by visual information. This combination of signals can be an expression of the early stages of the composition of motor commands for different forms of visuomotor coordination that depend on the integration of hand- and eye-related information. These results assign to area PEc, classically considered as a somatosensory association cortex, a new visuomotor role.

Reference frames and internal models for visuo-manual coordination: what can we learn from microgravity experiments?

Gravity plays a role in many different levels of human motor behavior. It dictates the laws of motion of our body and limbs, as well as of the objects in the external world with which we wish to interact. The dynamic interaction of our body with the world is molded within gravity's constraints. The task of catching a ball that has been thrown toward a human subject typifies the kind of constraints that the nervous system must take into consideration during visuo-manual coordination on earth. By dissecting and examining the components of this task, one can see what kinds of problems must be solved by the central nervous system to generate coordinated motor actions in response to incoming sensory information. In this review, we use the example of a ball catching task to outline various issues in the field of human motor control and to ask the question as to how the microgravity environment of lower earth orbit can be used to probe the functioning of the human motor system.

Relative phase stability of bimanual and visuomanual rhythmic coordination patterns in children with a Developmental Coordination Disorder

A dynamic pattern approach is used to examine the relative phase stability of rhythmic coordination in 24 children with a Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) and 24 matched controls in two functionally different tasks – a within-subject task (bimanual coordination) and a subject-environment task (visuomanual coordination). The stability of basic rhythmic coordination patterns (in-phase and antiphase patterns) was tested by applying perturbations, and by increasing the movement frequency towards the frequency where a loss of stability occurred. Coordination patterns of children with DCD were less stable than those of controls, both in the bimanual and the visuomanual task. According to the dynamic model (Haken, H., Kelso, J.A.S., Bunz, H., 1985. Biological Cybernetics 51, 347–356; Kelso, J.A.S., Delcolle, J.D., Schöner, G., 1990. In: Jeannerod, M. (Ed.), Attention and Performance XIII: Motor Representation and Control. Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, pp. 139–169), this reduced stability is due to a weaker coupling strength between the oscillators that represent the rhythmic units involved in the tasks. Further, within the DCD group three subtypes were found on the basis of particularly poor stability in bimanual rhythmic coordination ( N=2), visuomanual rhythmic coordination ( N=4), or both ( N=7). These data were related to the presence of neurological soft signs in the DCD group, which did not reveal specific patterns of minor neurological dysfunction in these children. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings were discussed. PsycINFO classification: 2323; 2330; 3250; 3297

Visuo-motor transformations for arm reaching.

Visuomanual co-ordination requires the merging of ocular and arm information in a common frame of reference. Here we consider behavioural evidence in humans for the use of a viewer-centred frame in the specification of end point positions of reaching. We then review anatomical and neurophysiological data in the non-human primate that indicate a prominent role of the parietal cortex in the process of multisensory fusion that leads to egocentric representations of space. Finally, we discuss the functional anatomy of the human parietal cortex in visuomanual co-ordination as revealed by neuroimaging.

Hand and brain: the neurophysiology and psychology of hand movements

The Hand in Action J.R. Flanagan, P. Haggard, and A.M. Wing, The Task at Hand. M.A. Goodale, L.S. Jakobson, and P. Servos, The Visual Pathways Mediating Perception and Prehension. The Motor Hand M.-C. Hepp-Reymond, E.J. Huesler, and M.A. Maier, Precision Grip in Humans: Temporal and Spatial Synergies. J. Fridin and R.L. Lieber, Muscle Architecture Basis for Neuromuscular Control of the Forearm and Hand. M.H. Schieber, Individuated Finger Movements: Rejecting the Labeled-Line Hypothesis. E.M. Rouiller, Multiple Hand Representations in the Motor Cortical Areas. J. Armand, E. Olivier, S.A. Edgley, and R.N. Lemon, The Structure and Function of the Developing Corticospinal Tract: Some Key Issues. Hand Positioning in Reaching J.F. Soechting, D.C. Tong, and M. Flanders, Frames of Reference in Sensorimotor Integration: Position Sense of the Arm and Hand. D.A. Rosenbaum, R.G.J. Meulenbroek, and J. Vaughan, Three Approaches to the Degrees of Freedom Problem in Reaching. C. Ghez, S. Cooper, and J. Martin, Kinematic and Dynamic Factors in the Coordination of Prehension Movements. F. Lacquaniti, Neural Control of Limb Mechanics for Visuomanual Coordination. Hand-Arm Coordination in Reach and Grasp T. Iberall and A.H. Fagg, Neural Network Models for Selecting Hand Shapes. Y. Paulignan and M. Jeannerod, Prehension Movements: The Visuomotor Channels Hypothesis Revisited. M. Wiesendanger, O. Kazennikov, S. Perrig, and P. Kaluzny, Two Hands--One Action: The Problem of Bimanual Coordination. A.M. Wing, Anticipatory Control of Grip Force in Rapid Arm Movement. The Sensorimotor Hand C.E. Chapman, F. Tremblay, and S.A. Ageranioti-Belanger, Role of Primary Somatosensory Cortex in Active and Passive Touch. L. Jones, Proprioception and Its Contribution to Manual Dexterity. A.B. Vallbo and J. Wessberg, Proprioceptive Mechanisms and the Control of Finger Movements. R.S. Johansson, Sensory Control of Dexterous Manipulation in Humans. J.R. Flanagan, Action–Perception Coupling in Judgments of Hand-Held Loads. S.J. Lederman and R.L. Klatzky, Action for Perception: Manual Exploratory Movements for Haptically Processing Objects and Their Features. References. Glossary. Subject Index.

The effects of cisapride on plasma L-dopa levels and clinical response in Parkinson's disease.

Cisapride (CIS) is a prokinetic agent that increases gastrointestinal motility in normal individuals and improves constipation in Parkinson's disease (PD). We studied the effects of CIS on the clinical response and the peripheral pharmacokinetics of orally administered L-dopa given to patients with PD. Twenty patients with idiopathic PD and chronic constipation, whose response to L-dopa was suboptimal or characterized by fluctuations, agreed to participate in an open study that lasted for 2 weeks. Fourteen patients completed the study (mean age 65 +/- 9.3 years, mean duration of treatment 5.7 +/- 4.2 years, mean L-dopa daily doses 658.9 +/- 269.9 mg); six patients were excluded due to lack of compliance or changes in medication during the study. The end points of the study included the mean levels of L-dopa, the height of the peak of L-dopa in plasma, mean plasma levels of 3-OM-dopa, and the speed and quality of gait and visuomanual coordination before and during treatment with CIS. CIS increased peak plasma levels of L-dopa by 37% and the mean plasma levels of L-dopa by 13% with respect to those obtained with the same dose of L-dopa before the addition of CIS. Therefore, CIS appears to increase early absorption of L-dopa through acceleration of gastric emptying. CIS also increased plasma 3-OM-dopa levels, improved visuomanual coordination, and reduced gait disability. CIS improves gastrointestinal function and response to L-dopa in patients with PD and could be a helpful add-on medication in these patients.

Children's and adults' learning of a visuomanual coordination: role of ongoing visual feedback and of spatial errors as a function of age.

The role of ongoing visual feedback and of spatial errors in learning a target-aimed task was investigated in 6-, 8-, and 11-yr.-old children, and young adults. In each of the four age groups, 16 subjects were randomly assigned to one of three conditions of learning (either with or without vision of the limb or with vision of final spatial error). All the subjects were tested without vision of the limb before and after the learning session. Before learning, directional bias was larger for 8-yr.-old children and target undershooting was greater for adults. After learning with vision of final spatial error, amplitude and direction improved for all age groups. Nevertheless, directional accuracy during the learning session increased more slowly for children than for adults. After learning with vision of the limb, direction improved for 6- and 8-yr.-old children only, demonstrating a specific role of ongoing visual feedback during learning at these ages. Further, an analysis of movement paths suggests a poorer capability for integrating proprioception by children than by adults.

Adaptive changes in perceptual responses and visuomanual coordination during exposure to visual metrical distortion

The abilities of the human visual system to perform metrical judgements (comparison of lengths, estimation of angles ...) involve the existence of some geometrical structure in the visual perceptual space. The question arises whether this geometrical structure is rigidly determined or is subject to adaptive changes. We have tried to answer the question by using a paradigm in which subjects are exposed to a vertically lengthened visual world and then asked to compare simultaneously presented lengths and to evaluate angles between two lines. Their perceptual responses clearly indicate a plastic adaptation to the deformed environment, though the adaptation was never complete after several days of continuous exposure to strong (25%) lengthening. For a maximum time of exposure of 7 days the rate of adaptation was found to be roughly independent of the initial degree of optical distortion. Visuomanual coordination was also investigated in these subjects, but the responses were less conclusive in this case. because of the high inter-subject variability.

The role of movement speed in learning a visuo-manual coordination in children.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the processes underlying aiming movements (motor programming and feedback control), and to explore their modification through learning. Two groups of 6- and 9-year-old children were asked to perform a directional aiming task without visual feedback (open-loop situation). After 15 trials (pretest) all subjects were submitted to a practice session which consisted of three series of trials with visual feedback (closed-loop situation). Half of the subjects had to perform the task at maximum speed (programmed movements), while the other half was required to perform slow movements (feedback-controlled movements). After the practice session all subjects were tested again in the openloop situation without time constraints (posttest). The results showed that during the practice session, accuracy was greater than in the two test conditions. It was greater in the case of slow movements than in the case of rapid ones. Moreover, in the case of rapid movements, it did not improve over the three practice series, while it did improve with slow movements. The difference between pre- and posttests showed that both groups improved their accuracy with practice in all conditions, the greatest improvement being obtained with rapid practice movements in 9-year-old children. It is suggested that different types of feedback (on-line and delayed feedback) contribute in varying degrees to the improvement of the aiming movements. However, the rapid movement condition, which requires a greater efficiency of programming, was found to be more effective for learning than the slow movement condition. The age-related differences found in learning suggest that feedback information can be fully integrated into motor programming only after 6 years of age.