Brain activation associated with a virtual decision-making task in children with and without developmental...

Developmental coordination disorder (DCD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder affecting motor control, motor learning, and coordination. This study investigates brain activation associated with a virtual decision-making task in children with and without DCD.

Twenty-two children with DCD and 22 neurotypical children completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) session, responding to a virtual task using controllers: (1) the direction to which a virtual person was travelling; and (2) how they would avoid the person. fMRI sequences included 3 blocks of 12 trials with 30 s of rest between blocks (i.e., 36 trials/task). Responses and neural activity during the tasks were compared between groups.

Children with DCD had greater neural activation during the avoidance task in the visual cortices and right middle frontal gyrus compared to their peers (p = 0.0084). Neural activity during the person-direction task was not different between groups (p > 0.05). Children with DCD were less accurate at responding correctly to the person direction task compared to their peers (p = 0.028). Response time was not significantly different between groups.

Children with DCD require greater attentional resources to complete a decision-making task compared to NT children. This greater cognitive effort may be due to deficits in visuomotor processing in children with DCD.