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Development of multisensory reweighting is impaired for quiet stance control in children with developmental
Woei-Nan Bair1, Tim Kiemel, John J Jeka
1Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science, University of Maryland, Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America. wnbair@gmail.com
Insights
Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) show delayed sensory reweighting and impaired multisensory integration compared to typically developing peers. This impacts their postural control and development.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Biomechanics
Background:
- Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is a common childhood movement disorder characterized by poor postural control.
- Multisensory integration deficits, particularly adaptive sensory reweighting, are implicated in DCD but require further characterization.
- Quantifying sensory reweighting aids understanding of DCD's developmental trajectory and differences from typically developing (TD) children.
Purpose of the Study:
- To empirically quantify and compare sensory reweighting abilities in children with DCD and TD children.
- To investigate the developmental onset of adaptive multisensory reweighting in relation to age.
- To characterize differences in visual and tactile sensory processing and multisensory fusion between the two groups.
Main Methods:
- Twenty children with DCD and data from a previous study of TD children underwent a protocol involving oscillating visual and tactile stimuli.
- Analysis focused on gains and phases of head and center of mass responses to assess sensory reweighting.
- Data were fitted by age-dependent functions to compare reweighting across groups and ages.
Main Results:
- Children with DCD exhibited delayed reweighting of touch and vision (10.8 years) compared to TD children (4.2 years).
- Children with DCD showed weaker visual reweighting and lacked advanced multisensory fusion.
- Phase lags in response to visual and tactile stimuli were larger in children with DCD than in TD children.
Conclusions:
- Delayed sensory reweighting and impaired multisensory fusion in DCD may relate to postural body scheme and dorsal stream development.
- Optimal multisensory integration is a protracted developmental process that appears vulnerable in children with DCD.
- Findings highlight specific sensory processing differences contributing to DCD and inform potential interventions.
Background:
Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is a leading movement disorder in children that commonly involves poor postural control. Multisensory integration deficit, especially the inability to adaptively reweight to changing sensory conditions, has been proposed as a possible mechanism but with insufficient characterization. Empirical quantification of reweighting significantly advances our understanding of its developmental onset and improves the characterization of its difference in children with DCD compared to their typically developing (TD) peers.
Methodology/Principal Findings:
Twenty children with DCD (6.6 to 11.8 years) were tested with a protocol in which visual scene and touch bar simultaneously oscillateded medio-laterally at different frequencies and various amplitudes. Their data were compared to data on TD children (4.2 to 10.8 years) from a previous study. Gains and phases were calculated for medio-lateral responses of the head and center of mass to both sensory stimuli. Gains and phases were simultaneously fitted by linear functions of age for each amplitude condition, segment, modality and group. Fitted gains and phases at two comparison ages (6.6 and 10.8 years) were tested for reweighting within each group and for group differences. Children with DCD reweight touch and vision at a later age (10.8 years) than their TD peers (4.2 years). Children with DCD demonstrate a weak visual reweighting, no advanced multisensory fusion and phase lags larger than those of TD children in response to both touch and vision.
Conclusions/Significance:
Two developmental perspectives, postural body scheme and dorsal stream development, are provided to explain the weak vision reweighting. The lack of multisensory fusion supports the notion that optimal multisensory integration is a slow developmental process and is vulnerable in children with DCD.
