Impaired anticipatory vision and visuomotor coordination affects action planning and execution in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy

Background: Action-planning and execution deficits in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy (HCP) are potentially due to deficits in the integration of sensory information, such as vision, with motor output.

Aims: To determine differences in anticipatory visual patterns in children with HCP compared to typically developing (TD) children, and to assess visuomotor coordination in children with HCP.

Methods and procedures: We included 13 children with HCP (Age = 6.8 + 2.9 yrs) and 15 TD children (Age = 5.8 + 1.1 yrs). The experimental task used in this study is a valid action-planning task, which consisted of initially reaching and grasping an object placed at a fixed position, followed by placing the object in a random target position. Visual patterns were recorded using a head-mounted eye-tracker system and arm movements were recorded using motion capture (120 Hz).

Outcomes and results: Children with HCP had delayed anticipatory gaze time and longer latency than TD children during the planning and execution phases. Children with HCP also had a higher frequency of gaze shifts, longer reaction times (RT) and movement times (MT) than TD children.

Conclusions and implications: Children with HCP may have deficits in anticipatory vision, which potentially affected planning and executing a goal-directed action. Therapeutic interventions focusing on improving visuomotor coordination may improve the motor performance in children with HCP.