A Method to Measure Eye-Hand Coordination for Extracting Skilled Elements-Simultaneous Measurement of Eye-Gaze and Hand Location-

The purpose of this study was to construct bases for exploring the process of skill acquisition from the viewpoint of eye-hand coordination. The information obtained from eye-gaze is closely related to physical movements in any activity. It is important to establish a method to measure eye-hand coordination for extracting skilled elements and understanding the skill acquisition process. Using a system which consists of an eye mark recorder and a three-dimensional location measurement device, a method for measuring eye-hand coordination was proposed on the basis of the simultaneous measurement of eye-gaze and brush tip locations. After describing the measurement algorithm, the eye-hand coordination during calligraphy was exemplified. More concretely, using such a system, an attempt was made to show that the relationship between the line of eye-gaze and the brush tip stroke was different between a novice and an expert. In such a way, we suggested that the proposed method is promising for exploring the process of skill acquisition.

Assessment of Eye-hand Coordination in Italian Preschools

In 2012, the Italian Ministry of Education introduced in the Guidelines for preschool the need to evaluate one aspect of coordination related to the eye-hand relationship. Meinel＇s theoretical model provides an overview of the eye hand coordination, based on capacity to integrate anatomic-functional skills with specific and synchronic hand＇s actions. Meinel＇s model is rich of possible teaching ideas which are consistent with the Italian school system. They might also be a topical theoretical support to choose and use the motor evaluation tests in the Italian preschool, in order to evaluate the eye hand coordination and its constituent elements.

Gardening May Repeatedly Activate the Frontal Pole

Previous epidemiological studies have indicated the effectiveness of gardening and other activities for dementia prevention. Our previous study using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) suggested seeding and watering tasks could induce greater activation than other gardening tasks in the prefrontal area of older adults, but repetitive effects were not fully addressed. The objective of this NIRS study was to investigate the effects of repeated gardening tasks on activation of the frontal pole (FP). We measured oxygenated hemoglobin (Oxy-Hb) values in the FP while 24 healthy right-handed older adults (60 - 73 years) performed a seeding task, a watering task, and a motor programming task (FAB 3) of the Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB). Each task was repeated five times. After the fourth trial, comparison of maximum Oxy-Hb values among the three tasks demonstrated that, in the medial FP, activation during the two gardening tasks was significantly or marginally significantly greater than activation during the FAB 3 task. The results may be attributable to differences in the number of sensory information sources and the number of stimulus-oriented (SO) attention switches and SO thoughts. No significant differences were observed in activation in the lateral FP. Comparison of maximum Oxy-Hb values among five trials within each task showed sustained medial FP activation in all tasks, while the watering task and FAB 3 task showed significantly decreased activation in a portion of the lateral FP. This was possibly due to differences in the number of times switching between SO attention and stimulus-independent (SI) attention, and differences in frequency of changes of visual dimension weighting. Also, in the gardening tasks, the participants needed to respond to changes in the external environment;it can be speculated that the need for collating external information corresponding to changes in the external environment induced repeated FP activation during the gardening tasks.