The eyes have it: An exploration of eye movements in action disorganisation syndrome

• Published in: Neuropsychologia Vol. 48; no. 7; pp. 1895 - 1900
• Main Authors: Forde, E.M.E., Rusted, J., Mennie, N., Land, M., Humphreys, G.W.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 01.06.2010; Elsevier
• Subjects: Action disorganisation syndrome; Activities of Daily Living; Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Alzheimer Disease - complications; Biological and medical sciences; Cognition Disorders - physiopathology; Everyday action; Eye movements; Eye Movements - physiology; Female; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Neuropsychological Tests; Organic mental disorders. Neuropsychology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychomotor Performance - physiology; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Action disorganisation syndrome; Everyday action; Eye movements; Human; Nervous system diseases; Action; Motor system disorder; Daily living; Eye movement; Cerebral disorder; Case study; Visual system; Central nervous system disease; Body movement; Neurological disorder; Motricity
• ISSN: 0028-3932; 1873-3514
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.01.024

We examined eye movements in a patient, FK, who has action disorganisation syndrome (ADS), as he performed the everyday task of making a cup of tea. We compared his eye movements with those of a person with Alzheimer's disease and with healthy volunteers. Despite showing very disorganised behaviour many aspects of FK's eye movements were relatively normal. However, unlike normal participants FK made no advance glances to objects that were about to be used, and he made increased numbers of fixations to irrelevant objects during the task. There were also differences in the durations of his eye movements during correct actions and during his perseverative and task-addition responses. We discuss the implications for understanding ADS and the cognitive processes required for correctly performing everyday tasks.