Gender Difference in Hand-eye Coordination in Young Adults-A Cross-sectional Study

Introduction: The ability of the visual system to coordinate the information acquired from the eyes to control and guide the hands in completing a task is known as hand-eye coordination. The typical hand-eye coordination involves the synergistic function of numerous sensorimotor systems, including the visual system, vestibular system and proprioception, as well as the head, eye and arm control systems.

Aim: To investigate which gender is superior and efficient in learning hand-eye coordination using the mirror drawing task.

Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at a tertiary care hospital, Mangalore, Karnataka, India, from April 2020 to April 2021 involving a total of 90 young adults divided into two groups of 45 males (group A) and 45 females (group B). A mirror drawing task was given to each student with four trials and two minutes rest in between the trials. Subjects were expected to trace a shape, most typically a polygon while only seeing the upturned reflection of their hand in a mirror and staying within the confines of a double boundary using a mirror drawing test. The number of errors, time taken to complete the task, and efficiency index of each student was calculated manually using the efficiency index formula and compared between the two groups.

Results: Total 90 participants were included with a mean age of 21.2 and 21.8 years for group A and group B, respectively. Group A (males) showed a greater efficiency index (5.52±2.29) when compared to group B (females) (4.61±1.77) (p-value-0.039). The Spearman’s ratio of mean error and mean time was 0.575 in males and 0.483 in females.

Conclusion: The males outperformed in efficiency index when compared to females in hand-eye coordination with repeated practice. The study concluded that males were having greater efficiency index and less number of errors and less time taken compared to females.