The relationships between muscle force steadiness and visual steadiness in young and old adults

Since vision is used in studies of muscle force control, reduced muscle force control might be related to reduced visual ability. We investigated relationships between steadiness in eye movements and quadriceps muscle torque (a surrogate for force) during isometric contractions of constant and varying torques. Nineteen young adults with an average age of 20.7 years and 18 old adults with an average age of 71.6 years performed three vision tasks, three vision and torque tasks at 40% maximal voluntary contraction (MVC), and three vision and torque tasks at 54 nm. Age groups had identical torque steadiness (CV) in 40%-MVC and 54-nm conditions (p > .05). Old had similar vertical (p > .05) but decreased horizontal visual steadiness (SD) (p < .05) compared with young. Correlations between visual steadiness and muscle torque steadiness failed to show a significant relationship (p > .05). We were unable to identify a substantial relationship between muscle torque steadiness and eye movement, as a component of visual steadiness, and conclude that reduced visual steadiness does not contribute to reduced muscle torque steadiness.