Does Postural Stability Affect the Performance of Eye-Hand Coordination in Stroke Survivors?

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to investigate eye-hand coordination in stroke survivors while sitting and standing and its relationship with sensorimotor performance. DESIGN This was a cross-sectional study conducted at university-based rehabilitation center. Fifteen stroke survivors performed a fast finger-pointing task toward a visual target moving at 10 cm/sec from the contralateral side toward the moving arm in sitting and standing positions. Reaction time, movement time, and pointing accuracy were measured. Anteroposterior, medial-lateral, and total sway were also measured during the standing trials. Several sensorimotor impairments were also measured to correlate with the eye-hand coordination performance. RESULTS A significantly shorter reaction time was found in the nonparetic than the paretic side when standing, but not when sitting. The movement time of the paretic side was significantly faster when standing when compared with sitting. Fast pointing with the paretic arm significantly increased the total sway path and anteroposterior displacement while standing compared with pointing with the nonparetic arm. Movement time of the paretic arm was negatively correlated with handgrip strength and the strength of the elbow flexors and wrist extensors. CONCLUSIONS The movement time of eye-hand coordination of stroke survivors was affected by postural stability. Correlations were found between pointing performance and several sensorimotor impairments.