Using eye tracking to assess learning of a multifunction prosthetic hand: an exploratory study from a rehabilitation perspective.
Wendy Hill, Helen Lindner
PMID 39217378WHAT IT FOUND
Two of three upper-limb amputees completed one-year follow-up and showed faster standardized tasks and less hand-focused gaze.
In self-chosen daily tasks, they looked first at objects, not the hand.
Key findings
01At one-year follow-up, Subject 1's standardized task time decreased by 35% and Subject 2's by 60%; both looked at objects for shorter periods, made fewer fixations, acted sooner after looking, and made larger eye movements between fixations.
02During standardized tasks, all three subjects first looked at the multifunction hand; during self-chosen tasks, first looks were mostly on objects.
03The hardest moments were grip switching: the longest looking, most fixations, smallest eye movements between fixations and longest delay before acting occurred when switching grips.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
Only three amputees were studied, and only two completed follow-up. The study was exploratory, with no random allocation, no control group and no usual-care comparison. All participants received a new multifunction hand or new control system plus basic skills training, so the contribution of any single component cannot be separated. Two subjects used gesture control and one used pattern recognition, and the hands were different, so participants were not directly comparable. Subject 3 had no follow-up data because of a socket problem. Wear time differed widely: 2 hours per day, 3-4 hours per day and 9-10 hours per day. Eye-tracking metrics were reported only for standardized tasks because walking around during self-chosen tasks made accurate fixation and saccade metrics difficult. Lighting was not consistent during self-chosen tasks, and the eye-tracking glasses sometimes stopped recording for unknown reasons.
Declared interests
The paper names Stiftelsen Promobilia and Örebro University as funders. It does not report a conflict-of-interest declaration.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that eye tracking or multifunction-hand training works. The study had only three amputees, no control group, different hands and control systems, and one subject did not complete follow-up because of a socket problem.