Journal of Motor Control and Learning
Volume:1 Issue: 2, Spring 2019

This study surveyed the probable incidence of Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD), a medical condition marked by poor motor coordination and clumsiness, in college-aged students.

A total of 4,014 individuals at Texas A&M University, aged 18-23 (40% males and 60% females), completed the Adolescents and Adults Coordination Questionnaire (AAC-Q) using Qualtrics, a web-based survey procedure.

Results indicated that about 7% of individuals fell into the category of ‘probable’ or ‘likely’ to have DCD. Although marginal, age differences were found to be significant with participants below 20 years old having more difficulty (greater perceived clumsiness) than those 20 years and older. In regard to gender, 5 of the 12 total items were statistically significant with females having a greater proportion of perceived clumsiness than males in 4 out of the 5 questions. That is, females indicated more difficulty with gross motor skills, such as learning to drive or to ride a bike, whereas males indicated more difficulty with fine motor tasks, such as handwriting, and completing tasks requiring fine detail. Interestingly, the 7% clumsiness level found here is similar to the well-documented level of 6% found in children; therefore, giving some credence to the likelihood that children may not ‘simply mature out of the condition.’ This was a preliminary study and future research needs to examine actual (rather than perceived level) of DCD.

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of neurofeedback training on the performance of female rugby players.

 The research design was a quasi-experimental with control and experimental groups. Twenty-four girl rugby players between 16-25 years old from Alborz province were randomly placed in two equal 12-subjects groups. Neurofeedback training carried out for 15 sessions, three times per week. Neurofeedback training group protocols were alpha/theta training in Pz area and SMR / theta protocol in the C3 area for 20 minutes. Data were collected from the pre-test and post-test to measure rugby performance including an accuracy test for passing and shooting. The nonparametric mann–whitney u test was used for data analysis.

The results showed that the accuracy of left and right passing were increased after neurofeedback training. But, no significant improvement in the performance of shooting accuracy was observed.

It can be concluded that neurofeedback training can be an effective method to boost the optimal performance of athletes in sports requiring accuracy like passing in rugby.

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are developmental conditions characterized by deficits in social interaction, motor performance, and obsessive/stereotyped patterns of behavior. Although there is no reliable neurophysiological marker associated with ASD, dysfunction of the parietal-frontal mirror neuron system has been suggested as a disturbance linked to the disorder.

The purpose of this applied and basic study was to investigate the effect of perceptual-motor training on the mirror neuron activity, behavioral disorders, and social development in children with high function autism.

The pretest-posttest randomized-group research design was used for this quasi-experimental research. Therefore,  12 children with high function autism (7-11 years) were selected from a special school and then assigned into two groups (experimental and control). Social development, behavioral disorders, and mirror neurons activity were assessed at baseline (pre-intervention), week 8 ( post-intervention). The experimental group received perceptual motor training three times per week for 8 weeks). Data were analyzed by independent t-test, mixed 2 ˟ 2 ˟ 2 ˟ 3 ANOVA, mix ANOVA 2 ˟ 2 at the p<0.05 significance.

Results showed that perceptual motor training significantly reduced behavioral disorders(p<0.05), and increased social development in the experimental group(p<0.05). furthermore, there was a significant improvement in MNs activity in the experimental group compared with the control group. (p<0.05).

These results can affect the improvement of autistic children and it emphasized the role of motor skills in autistic children school schedule.

This study was aimed at the determination of the effect of sports vision training on visual-motor perception and performance in karate kata.

The participants were 24 athletic in karate kata (10-12 yr) with an orange belt in Kata. Participants were chosen and randomly assigned into two groups of sports vision training (n=12) and control (n=12). The pretest includes visual-motor perception test and measurement of karate kata performance. After the pretest, vision training group engaged in kata practice and sports vision training for 8 weeks. During this period, the control group only engaged in kata practice. After completion of the training course, a posttest similar to the pretest was administered. For Data analysis, analysis of covariance was used.

The findings showed the superiority of the vision training group in visual-motor perception and performance in Kata.

The finding showed that sports vision exercise can increase the performance of closed skills.

The effects of limb-specific fatigue on motor skill acquisition and retention are not clear.

To investigate the impact of limb-specific fatigue on the acquisition and retention of an upper extremity proprioceptive task.

Twenty-two right-handed participants were randomly and equally assigned to either fatigued or non-fatigued protocols. Acquisition phase for the upper extremity task consisted of 5 blocks each with 12 trials. After 48 hours, all participants performed 1 block retention test (12 trials) with the left arm followed by 1 block transfer test (12 trials) with the right arm. Performance for each block was analyzed using a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Performance differences between groups for the acquisition was analyzed using a 2 x 5 (group x block) ANOVA with repeated measures on the blocks. The performance on retention-transfer was analyzed by separate ANOVAs. Statistical significance set at p < .05.

The fatigued condition displayed significantly more E than the non-fatigue group (p < .05). During retention and transfer, the fatigue group again displayed higher E compared to the non-fatigued group (p < .05).

The results of this study support that limb-specific fatigue may produce performance deficits during acquisition and interfere with motor skill retention.