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Head, arm and trunk coordination during reaching in children.
H Sveistrup1, S Schneiberg, P A McKinley
1Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada. Heidi.Sveistrup@uottawa.ca
Experimental Brain Research
|April 9, 2008
Summary
Head-trunk coordination during reaching tasks matures at different rates across movement planes, with some strategies not fully developing until adulthood. This study provides a developmental database for head and trunk movement in children.
Area of Science:
- Developmental neuroscience
- Motor control
- Biomechanics
Background:
- Head orientation is crucial for balance and egocentric referencing during postural and locomotor tasks.
- In young children, head-trunk coordination during locomotion adapts to task difficulty, favoring restricted movement ('en bloc').
- Developmental data on head-trunk coordination during reaching tasks is lacking.
Purpose of the Study:
- To characterize the developmental trajectory of head-trunk coordination during seated reaching in typically developing children.
- To identify age-related maturation patterns and differences across movement planes (yaw, roll, pitch).
Main Methods:
- Forty-four typically developing children (2.8–11.8 years) and six adults performed reaching and grasping tasks.
- Three-dimensional motion tracking recorded head and trunk rotational movements in yaw, roll, and pitch planes.
- Analysis included relative/absolute angles, anchoring index (AI), and direction index (DI) to assess head-trunk coupling.
Main Results:
- Head-trunk coordination patterns varied across movement planes and age groups.
- Youngest children showed mixed head-stabilized-on-trunk (HST) and head-stabilized-in-space (HSS) patterns in the yaw plane; HSS dominated other planes.
- Maturation of direction index (DI) occurred by 2–5 years, except for pitch plane reaches; roll plane maturation extended into adulthood.
Conclusions:
- Head-trunk coordination during reaching matures differentially across movement planes, following a protracted and non-chronological course.
- Maturation patterns differ from those observed in locomotor tasks, highlighting task-specific developmental principles.
- Findings offer a normative database for comparison with children exhibiting movement disorders.
