A comparison of motor imagery performance in children with spastic hemiplegia and developmental coordination disorder

Abstract

Individuals with hemiplegia have difficulty planning movements, which may stem from deficits in motor imagery ability. We explored motor imagery ability in three groups of 21 children, aged 8–12 years: children with hemiplegia; children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD); and a comparison group. They completed two tasks requiring laterality judgments of body parts—hand and whole-body rotation. Accuracy in both was reduced for the motor-impaired groups, and response time was atypical for the whole-body task. This suggests that motor imagery deficits exist in children with hemiplegia and DCD, supporting previous findings that planning deficits in hemiplegia may result from deficits in motor imagery.

Keywords:

• Motor imagery
• Developmental coordination disorder
• Spastic hemiplegia
• Motor control
• Motor impairment

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Lynne Quayle Charitable Trust Fund, L.E.W. Carty Charitable Fund, and the Jack Brockhoff Foundation.