Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Minnesota, Kenneth H. Keller Hall, 200 Union St SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, United States of America.
College of Design, University of Minnesota, 107 Rapson Hall, 89 Church Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, United States of America.
Hum Mov Sci. 2024 Aug;96:103254. doi: 10.1016/j.humov.2024.103254. Epub 2024 Jul 30.
Bilateral coordination is commonly impaired in neurodevelopmental conditions including cerebral palsy, developmental coordination disorder, and autism spectrum disorder. However, we lack objective clinical assessments that can quantify bilateral coordination in a clinically feasible manner and determine age-based norms to identify impairments. The objective of this study was to use augmented reality and computer vision to characterize bilateral reaching abilities in typically developing children. Typically developing children (n = 133) ages 6-17 years completed symmetric and asymmetric bilateral reaching tasks in an augmented reality game environment. We analyzed the number of target pairs they could reach in 50 s as well as the time lag between their hands reaching the targets. We found that performance on both tasks developed in parallel, with development slowing but not plateauing after age 12. Children performed better on the symmetric task than asymmetric, both in targets reached and with shorter hand lags. Variability between children in hand lag decreased with age. We also found gender differences with females outperforming males, which were most pronounced in the 10-11 year olds. Overall, this study demonstrates parallel development through childhood and adolescence of symmetric and asymmetric reaching abilities. Furthermore, it demonstrates the ability to quantify bilateral coordination using computer vision and augmented reality, which can be applied to assess clinical populations.
双侧协调在神经发育障碍中普遍受损，包括脑瘫、发育性协调障碍和自闭症谱系障碍。然而，我们缺乏能够以临床可行的方式量化双侧协调并确定基于年龄的正常范围以识别障碍的客观临床评估。本研究的目的是使用增强现实和计算机视觉来描述正常发育儿童的双侧伸手能力。年龄在 6-17 岁的正常发育儿童（n=133）在增强现实游戏环境中完成了对称和不对称的双侧伸手任务。我们分析了他们在 50 秒内可以达到的目标对的数量以及双手到达目标的时间差。我们发现，这两项任务的表现都呈平行发展，12 岁后发展速度减缓但并未停滞。儿童在对称任务中的表现优于不对称任务，无论是在达到的目标数量还是手的滞后时间上。儿童之间的手滞后时间差异随着年龄的增长而减小。我们还发现了性别差异，女性表现优于男性，在 10-11 岁的儿童中最为明显。总体而言，这项研究表明，对称和不对称伸手能力在儿童期和青春期呈平行发展。此外，它还展示了使用计算机视觉和增强现实来量化双侧协调的能力，这可以应用于评估临床人群。
