Lack of Motor Inhibition as a Marker of Learning Difficulties of Bimanual Coordination in Teenagers With Developmental Coordination Disorder

ABSTRACT

This study tested the learning of a new bimanual coordination in teenagers with and without Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD). Both groups improved accuracy of the new coordination. No difference was found on stability. But DCD teenagers exhibited an overall higher number of additional taps, suggesting a persistent lack of motor inhibition during learning. Moreover, teenagers with the lowest scores of motor abilities present the highest number of additional taps. All these results suggest that this number of additional taps (rather than traditional measures of accuracy and stability) could be a good marker of perceptual-motor learning deficit in DCD.

Acknowledgements

We are thankful to all the teenagers and their parents who gave willingly of their time and effort. We also wish to thank Nadège Algans and Cécile Gauchet for their help in the promotion of this study and Andrès Posada for his help in programming.

Funding

This work was promoted by the University Hospital of Toulouse Purpan for regulatory and ethic submission (AOL No. 13 7004 03). The first author was supported by a grant from the French National Research Agency (ANR-13-APPR-0010-01

Additional information

Funding

This work was promoted by the University Hospital of Toulouse Purpan for regulatory and ethic submission (AOL No. 13 7004 03). The first author was supported by a grant from the French National Research Agency (ANR-13-APPR-0010-01