Understanding the integration of vision and limb position

Summary

This study is looking at how people combine vision and proprioception. Proprioception is the sense of your body position and movement in space and is important for carrying out everyday tasks. Half of all stroke survivors have problems with proprioception. A common way to improve poor proprioception is having someone look at their arms while doing a task, but this does not always work. We think that this does not always work because the brain makes mistakes when combining information from the body and eyes. Our lab uses a technology called the Kinarm, which is a robotic exoskeleton that is linked to an eye tracker. Using the Kinarm allows us to precisely measure arm movements and eye movements during tasks. We want to look at eye and arm movements during tasks in both stroke survivors and control participants. We hope that the results of this work will help move towards better therapies for stroke survivors with proprioceptive, visual, and integration deficits.

Eligibility

Currently recruiting participants: Yes

Eligible ages: 18 to 99

Accepts healthy participants: Yes

Inclusion criteria:

Stroke participants are eligible if:
1) it is their first stroke
2) they are over 18 years old
3) they are between 1 week and 3 months post-stroke
4) they can understand task instructions

Control participants will be included if they have:
1) normal (or corrected to normal) visual acuity
2) no history of neurological disease
3) no history of musculoskeletal disorders that could potentially affect their ability to move their arms
4) no history of eye movement disorders

Exclusion criteria:

Stroke survivors are not eligible to participate if they have:
1) any history of other neurological disorders (e.g. epilepsy, brain tumor)
2) orthopedic issues in the upper extremities
3) any history of eye movement disorders

Participate

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Method of contact

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Additional information

Contact information

Lydia Kuhl, PhD Candidate Neuro Robot Lab University of Calgary, Cumming School of Medicine

Principal investigator:

Sean Dukelow

Clinical trial:

No

REB-ID:

REB15-1340