Looking into the future: predictive and online vision for action in aging

• Applicant: Dimitrios Voudouris, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology ; Human Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience ; Cognitive, Systems and Behavioural Neurobiology
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 454147575

Imagine moving in our complex world with your eyes closed. This would pose serious challenges in a number of tasks. Because vision is so important for movement, humans typically shift their gaze to positions of interest to obtain sensory input for planning and guiding simple and complex movements, like catching a moving ball. Gaze can be shifted either by moving only the eyes or by performing combined eye and head movements. Using gaze shifts for movement supports two main purposes: First, it allows for predictions about future states, which supports movement planning, and, second, it allows for instantaneous sampling of sensory input that facilitates online movement guidance. Predicting and sampling the world are critical features for sensorimotor control, especially in aging, when the general functional decline can lead to critical consequences, such as falls. First, poor prediction of future events can challenge movement planning and control, especially when interacting with the dynamic world, such as when catching a ball. Second, compromised sampling of sensory input due to pronounced sensory uncertainty with aging hinders movement responses to unexpected changes, such as when a wind gust disturbs the flying ball’s dynamics. Although healthy aging has been systematically examined with respect to cognitive and perceptual functions, the examination of how old adults use their gaze to control their body movements has hitherto been rather limited.In the proposed project, I will examine how aging influences predictive and online gaze when moving in dynamic environments. In addition, I will investigate whether gaze shifts in aging are performed mainly by isolated eye movements or, rather, by combined eye-head movements, in which case the sampled sensory input can be more reliable. To this end, I will analyze gaze by examining eye and head movements while also investigating whole-body movements and ground reaction forces. With this methodologically holistic approach I set two main aims: First, I will analyze how older adults use predictive and online gaze to plan and guide goal-directed arm movements in dynamic environments, in which the prevailing dynamics can be inferred with different degrees of certainty. Second, I will challenge modern accounts about modified eye movement behavior in aging by examining whether such modifications result from a stronger engagement of head movements to accommodate the desired gaze shifts, as an attempt to minimize sensory noise.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Netherlands
• Cooperation Partner: Dr. Eli Brenner