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Efficiently Recording the Eye-Hand Coordination to Incoordination Spectrum
Published on: March 21, 2019
Visuo-motor coordination in 8-year-old children born pre-term before and after 28 weeks of gestation
Cyril Schneider1, Line Nadeau, Chantal Bard
1Centre de Recherche du CHUL, CHUQ, Université Laval, Québec, Canada. cyril.schneider@rea.ulaval.ca
Insights
Very preterm infants (born <28 weeks gestational age) show impaired visuo-motor skills and altered interhemispheric transfer, unlike moderately preterm or full-term children. This suggests potential corpus callosum thinning and motor programming deficits.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Pediatrics
Background:
- Preterm birth is associated with increased risks for neurodevelopmental deficits.
- Visuo-motor abilities are crucial for daily functioning and academic success.
- Understanding specific deficits in preterm populations aids early intervention.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare visuo-motor abilities between very preterm, moderately preterm, and full-term children.
- To investigate interhemispheric transfer time and motor programming in these groups.
- To identify potential neurological underpinnings of observed differences.
Main Methods:
- Study included 23 eight-year-old children: 5 born <28 weeks gestational age (Preterms1), 9 born 28-35 weeks gestational age (Preterms2), and 9 full-term controls.
- Interhemispheric transfer time and visuo-manual pointing tasks were assessed.
- Motor programming was tested in unimanual (dominant/non-dominant) and bimanual (mirror/opposite) pointing conditions.
Main Results:
- Preterms1 exhibited significantly longer interhemispheric transfer times compared to Preterms2 and controls.
- Motor programming was significantly impaired in Preterms1 for unilateral dominant hand pointing and opposite bimanual pointing.
- Preterms2 showed similar performance to full-term controls.
Conclusions:
- Very preterm infants (Preterms1) demonstrate faulty visuo-manual programming, possibly due to impaired interhemispheric inhibition.
- Potential corpus callosum thinning may underlie these deficits in Preterms1.
- These motor assessments can help monitor fine motor control and identify preterm infants at risk for long-term developmental issues.
Purpose:
This study compared the visuo-motor abilities between pre-term and full-term children.
Methods:
Twenty-three 8-year-old children participated, five being born under 28 weeks gestational age (wGA) referred to as Preterms1 (mean=8 years 5 months [SD 0.3]), nine Preterms2 of 28-35 wGA (mean=7 years 9 months [SD 0.7]) and nine typically developing full-term controls (mean=8 years 6 months [SD 0.7]). All children were studied in an interhemispheric transfer time and in a visuo-manual pointing-task to test motor programming time in three conditions: unimanual pointing (dominant, non-dominant hands), mirror bimanual pointing (same direction for both hands) and opposite bimanual pointing.
Results:
Significant differences were detected between Preterms 1 and 2, the latter being similar to controls. Preterms1 presented increases in interhemispheric time, suggesting an alteration in the transcallosal pathways. Programming time was significantly lengthened (p50.01) for dominant hand unilateral pointing and opposite bilateral pointing and it was the shortest for mirror pointing.
Conclusions:
A faulty programming of visuo-manual tasks is suspected in Preterms1 with potential difficulty inhibiting the non-dominant limb mirror movement. This may result from an impaired interhemispheric inhibition owing to potential corpus callosum thinning. Such measures may be used to help follow-up subtle changes in fine motor control and detect pre-terms at risk of developing long-term deficits.