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Temporal Eye-Hand Coordination During Visually Guided Reaching in 7- to 12-Year-Old Children With Strabismus
Krista R Kelly1,2, Dorsa Mir Norouzi1, Mina Nouredanesh3
1Retina Foundation of the Southwest, Dallas, TX, United States.
Insights
Children with strabismus exhibit impaired saccade kinematics during visually guided reaching, indicating difficulties in motor control and coordination. These findings suggest insufficient adaptation or compensatory strategies in treated strabismic children.
Area of Science:
- Ophthalmology
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Pediatrics
Background:
- Strabismus, or eye misalignment, can affect visual development and motor control.
- Previous research indicated slow visually guided reaching in children with strabismus, particularly during the final approach phase.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate saccade kinematics and temporal eye-hand coordination during visually guided reaching in children treated for strabismus.
- To compare these parameters between strabismic children and age-similar controls.
Main Methods:
- Thirty children (7-12 years) with esotropia and 32 controls underwent eye movement and index finger movement recordings.
- Participants performed visually guided reaching tasks to a target, with saccade and reach metrics analyzed.
Main Results:
- Strabismic children showed longer saccade latency, reduced primary and final saccade precision, and increased reach-related saccades compared to controls.
- No correlation was found between stereoacuity and impaired saccade kinematics.
Conclusions:
- Strabismus significantly impacts saccade kinematics in children during visually guided reaching.
- Poor binocularity contributes to performance deficits, suggesting incomplete adaptation or compensatory strategies in treated children.
Purpose:
We recently found slow visually guided reaching in strabismic children, especially in the final approach. Here, we expand on those data by reporting saccade kinematics and temporal eye-hand coordination during visually guided reaching in children treated for strabismus compared with controls.
Methods:
Thirty children diagnosed with esotropia, a form of strabismus, 7 to 12 years of age and 32 age-similar control children were enrolled. Eye movements and index finger movements were recorded. While viewing binocularly, children reached out and touched a small dot that appeared randomly in one of four locations along the horizontal meridian (±5° or ±10°). Saccade kinematic measures (latency, accuracy and precision, peak velocity, and frequency of corrective and reach-related saccades) and temporal eye-hand coordination measures (saccade-to-reach planning interval, saccade-to-reach peak velocity interval) were compared. Factors associated with impaired performance were also evaluated.
Results:
During visually guided reaching, strabismic children had longer primary saccade latency (strabismic, 195 ± 29 ms vs. control; 175 ± 23 ms; P = 0.004), a 25% decrease in primary saccade precision (0.15 ± 0.06 vs. 0.12 ± 0.03; P = 0.007), a 45% decrease in the final saccade precision (0.16 ± 0.06 vs. 0.11 ± 0.03; P < 0.001), and more reach-related saccades (16 ± 13% of trials vs. 8 ± 6% of trials; P = 0.001) compared with a control group. No measurable stereoacuity was related to poor saccade kinematics.
Conclusions:
Strabismus impacts saccade kinematics during visually guided reaching in children, with poor binocularity playing a role in performance. Coupled with previous data showing slow reaching in the final approach, the current saccade data suggest that children treated for strabismus have not yet adapted or formed an efficient compensatory strategy during visually guided reaching.
