Analysis of eye movements, kinematics and dynamic aspects of performance during activities of daily living in stroke patients

Abstract

Apraxia is a neuropsychological symptom occurring as a consequence of cerebrovascular accidents (CVA). Apraxic individuals suffer from compromised access to motor concepts relevant for execution of activities of daily living (ADL). The CogWatch project aims to develop an automatized rehabilitation system that would facilitate performance of ADL. This study investigates signals which the CogWatch system can use to recognize human actions and intentions as well as apraxic errors during the performance of ADL tasks. Eye movements, hand kinematics and the dynamics of manipulated objects are recorded during the task of tea-making as an example of ADL. Data analysis is demonstrated using a performance example and first analysis results are shown for movement paths and times for the whole task and its sub-segments. CVA patients showed similar path lengths but prolonged movement times and less executed sub-segments in comparison with age-matched control subjects.