Gaze behaviour during multiple object tracking is sensitive to postural stability

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to assess the impact of manipulating postural stability during the execution of the multiple objects tracking (MOT) task on gaze behaviour. Twenty-eight males performed the MOT task under three levels of postural stability while eye movements were recorded. Postural stability had a significant impact on MOT scores and gaze behaviour. Participants exhibited worse MOT performance (p < 0.001, η² = 0.20) in less stable conditions, showing a reduced fixation duration (p = 0.020, η² = 0.09) and increased saccade frequency (p = 0.013, η² = 0.10). As stability conditions decreased, participants shifted their gaze strategies by an average of 12.34% of the time distribution from maintaining fixation on a central location to adopting the target-looking strategy. Additionally, the decline in MOT scores with decreasing stability was correlated with a reduction in fixation duration (r = 0.409, p = 0.031). The findings evidence that gaze behaviour during MOT is dependent on postural stability and MOT performance is influenced by the chosen gaze strategy.

Key points

• Reduced postural stability significantly impairs the ability to track multiple objects.

• Changes in postural stability during a multiple object tracking task affect gaze behaviour by alterations in fixation duration and saccadic frequency.

• Decrease in multiple object tracking task scores is associated with alterations in gaze behaviour, specifically a reduction in fixation duration.

• Participants shifted their gaze strategies from maintaining fixation on a central location to adopting a saccadic target-looking strategy as stability conditions decreased.

KEYWORDS:

• Postural stability
• eye movements
• motor control
• tracking performance

Acknowledgments

We sincerely thank our participants for their invaluable contributions to our research. Additionally, we acknowledge that this article was crafted during the first author's research stay at the University of Granada from October to December 2023.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics approval statement

This study was conducted in accordance with ethical guidelines and received approval from the Institutional Review Board of the University of Granada (IRB approval: 1180/CEIH/2020). The research adhered to the ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects, as outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki by the World Medical Association.

Author contributions

Teresa Zwierko: Conceptualization; methodology; visualization; formal analysis; investigation; writing – original draft. Wojciech Jedziniak: Software development; investigation; data curation; writing – original draft. Beatriz Redondo: Resources; formal analysis; writing – review and editing. Jesús Vera: Conceptualization; methodology; writing – original draft.

Data availability statement

The datasets during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.