Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 12, 2026
08:26
Event-related Potentials During Target-response Tasks to Study Cognitive Processes of Upper Limb Use in Children with Unilateral Cerebral Palsy
Published on: January 11, 2016
Differences in movement-related cortical activation patterns underlying motor performance in children with and
Melissa M Pangelinan1, Bradley D Hatfield, Jane E Clark
1Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Program and Department of Kinesiology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA. mpangelinan@research.baycrest.org
Journal of Neurophysiology
|March 29, 2013
Summary
Children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) show different brain activity patterns during motor tasks. Older children with DCD may use compensatory strategies to achieve similar performance to typically developing peers.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Motor Control
Background:
- Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is characterized by behavioral deficits in visuomotor planning and control.
- Functional impairments in DCD are linked to atypical brain development, but neurological mechanisms remain underexplored.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the neurological mechanisms underlying visuomotor deficits in children with DCD using electroencephalography (EEG).
- To compare cortical resource engagement during a visuomotor task between children with and without DCD across different age groups.
Main Methods:
- EEG recordings were obtained from 6- to 12-year-old children with DCD (n=14) and typically developing (TD) children (n=20).
- Participants performed a visuomotor drawing task while EEG data was collected.
- Motor performance and cortical activation patterns were analyzed in relation to age and group.
Main Results:
- While overall group developmental trajectories for motor performance were similar, cortical engagement differed significantly between children with DCD and TD children.
- Younger children with DCD showed less engagement of motor cortical areas compared to TD peers.
- Older children with DCD exhibited greater engagement of motor cortical areas, suggesting a compensatory strategy.
Conclusions:
- Children with DCD display distinct patterns of cortical resource engagement during visuomotor tasks compared to TD children.
- Older children with DCD may utilize compensatory mechanisms involving increased motor cortical activation to achieve comparable behavioral performance.
- The relationship between activation magnitude and kinematic measures in DCD suggests that enhanced neural resource engagement can support motor function.
