Eye-hand re-coordination: A pilot investigation of gaze and reach biofeedback in chronic stroke

Within the domain of motor performance, eye-hand coordination centers on close relationships between visuo-perceptual, ocular and appendicular motor systems. This coordination is critically dependent on a cycle of feedforward predictions and feedback-based corrective mechanisms. While intrinsic feedback harnesses naturally available movement-dependent sensory channels to modify movement errors, extrinsic feedback may be provided synthetically by a third party for further supplementation. Extrinsic feedback has been robustly explored in hand-focused, motor control studies, such as through computer-based visual displays, highlighting the spatial errors of reaches. Similar attempts have never been tested for spatial errors related to eye movements, despite the potential to alter ocular motor performance. Stroke creates motor planning deficits, resulting in the inability to generate predictions of motor performance. In this study involving visually guided pointing, we use an interactive computer display to provide extrinsic feedback of hand endpoint errors in an initial baseline experiment (pre-) and then feedback of both eye and hand errors in a second experiment (post-) to chronic stroke participants following each reach trial. We tested the hypothesis that extrinsic feedback of eye and hand would improve predictions and therefore feedforward control. We noted this improvement through gains in the spatial and temporal aspects of eye-hand coordination or an improvement in the decoupling noted as incoordination post-stroke in previous studies, returning performance toward healthy, control behavior. More specifically, results show that stroke participants, following the interventional feedback for eye and hand, improved both their accuracy and timing. This was evident through a temporal re-synchronization between eyes and hands, improving correlations between movement timing, as well as reducing the overall time interval (delay) between effectors. These experiments provide a strong indication that an extrinsic feedback intervention at appropriate therapeutic doses may improve eye-hand coordination during stroke rehabilitation.