Contribution of binocular vision to motor skill development and performance

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Manual dexterity or performance of skillful movements with our hands is one of the hallmarks of human evolution and a pinnacle of sensorimotor development. Vision provides important input for guiding and coordinating the execution of relatively simple skills, such as making your morning cup of coffee, as well as incredibly challenging skills involved in performing a surgical procedure. Intuitively, one could predict that binocular vision must be fundamentally important for the performance of these skills. However, our understanding of the role of this input during development and in the control of complex manipulation tasks remains limited. Specifically, no studies to date have examined the development of binocular visual functions and fine motor skills in school-aged children. Conversely, research conducted with adults provided mixed evidence for the role of binocular vision during execution of simple prehension tasks. Thus, the long term goal of the proposed research program is to establish the contribution of binocular vision to motor skill learning and performance when interacting with objects in a 3D environment. The first objective of the proposed research is to assess the association between the development of binocular visual functions and fine motor skills. It is hypothesized that improvements in motor skill performance in children are dependent on the maturation of the binocular visual functions. Later work will focus on the adults and the experiments are designed to manipulate binocular vision and haptic (touch) information such that we can tease out the critical variables contributing to the optimal performance and learning of manipulation skills. It is hypothesized that binocular disparity facilitates the processing of object features which leads to more effective control strategies during object manipulation. Whereas in the absence of binocular disparity this control is disrupted as subjects must rely on haptic feedback. It is anticipated that the proposed research program will establish the role of normal binocular vision in motor skill acquisition in children. It is necessary to have an understanding of the underlying factors contributing to optimal acquisition of fine motor skills because performance on dexterity tasks is a strong predictor of academic achievement in school-aged children. The proposed research will also advance our knowledge about the CNS control of upper limb movements while interacting with objects in 3D space. Is it important to understand the contribution of binocular disparity and visual-haptic integration because skilled motor performance is required in many occupational activities. Thus, ultimately, this research will also have implications for developing occupational standards for binocular vision requirements for professions that require precise execution of skilful movements, for example, surgery, dentistry and industry.******