Early Blindness Limits the Head-Trunk Coordination Development for Horizontal Reorientation.

ABSTRACT: During locomotion, goal-directed orientation movements in the horizontal plane require a high degree of head-trunk coordination. This coordination is acquired during childhood. Since early visual loss is linked to motor control deficits, we hypothesize that it may also affect the development of head-trunk coordination for horizontal rotations. However, no direct evidence exists about such a deficit. To assess this hypothesis, we tested early blind and sighted individuals on dynamic sound alignment through a head-pointing task with sounds delivered in acoustic virtual reality. Participants could perform the head-pointing with no constraints, or they were asked to immobilize their trunk voluntarily. Kinematics of head and trunk were assessed individually and with respect to each other, toget

SUBMITTER: Esposito D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8322610 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature