Related Experiment Video

Updated: Feb 12, 2026

Quantified Assessment of Infant's Gross Motor Abilities Using a Multisensor Wearable
09:24

Quantified Assessment of Infant's Gross Motor Abilities Using a Multisensor Wearable

Published on: May 17, 2024

2.2K

Longitudinal examination of early motor ability and motor developmental change to predict two-year cognitive outcomes

Kanishka Baduni1, Caitlin P Kjeldsen2, Mary Lauren Neel2

  • 1Department of Kinesiology, University of Georgia, United States of America.

Early Human Development
|February 10, 2026
PubMed

Insights

Early motor skills in preterm infants predict later cognitive ability. Fine-motor development specifically is a key indicator of cognitive advancement in the second year of life.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Pediatrics
  • Neuroscience
  • Child Psychology

Background:

  • Preterm infants face elevated risks for motor and cognitive delays.
  • Early motor function is a crucial predictor of later cognitive outcomes in this population.
  • The distinct roles of fine-motor and gross-motor skills in cognitive development require further clarification.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To assess if 12-month motor abilities predict 24-month cognition, distinguishing between fine-motor-dependent and fine-motor-minimized cognitive tasks.
  • To investigate the association between changes in fine-motor and gross-motor skills from 12 to 24 months and 24-month global cognition.

Main Methods:

  • Longitudinal study of 114 preterm infants from a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) cohort.
  • Neuromotor status assessed via Hammersmith Infant Neurological Examination (HINE); developmental metrics via Bayley scales.
  • Multivariate and linear regression analyses used to model motor predictors of cognitive outcomes, adjusting for covariates.

Main Results:

  • 12-month motor ability positively predicted 24-month cognition for both fine-motor-dependent and fine-motor-minimized cognitive subsets.
  • Improvement in fine-motor skills (ΔFM) from 12 to 24 months significantly predicted higher 24-month cognition.
  • Changes in gross-motor skills (ΔGM) did not show a significant association with 24-month cognition.

Conclusions:

  • Both early global motor competence and subsequent fine-motor growth are linked to cognitive development in preterm infants.
  • Findings suggest a developmental shift towards fine-motor specialization in the second year of life.
  • Fine-motor skill progression may serve as a valuable marker for cognitive advancement in early childhood for preterm infants.
Abstract

Keywords:
Cognitive developmentFine-motor developmentLongitudinal developmentMotor–cognition couplingPreterm infants

More Related Videos

The "Motor" in Implicit Motor Sequence Learning: A Foot-stepping Serial Reaction Time Task10:39

The "Motor" in Implicit Motor Sequence Learning: A Foot-stepping Serial Reaction Time Task

Published on: May 3, 2018

9.1K
Dynamic Digital Biomarkers of Motor and Cognitive Function in Parkinson's Disease10:28

Dynamic Digital Biomarkers of Motor and Cognitive Function in Parkinson's Disease

Published on: July 24, 2019

16.3K

Related Concept Videos

Predicting Reaction Outcomes02:24

Predicting Reaction Outcomes

Kinetics describes the rate and path by which a reaction occurs. In contrast, thermodynamics deals with state functions and describes the properties, behavior, and components of a system. It is not concerned with the path taken by the process and cannot address the rate at which a reaction occurs. Although it does provide information about what can happen during a reaction process, it does not describe the detailed steps of what appears on an atomic or a molecular level. On the other hand,...
11.0K
Longitudinal Research02:20

Longitudinal Research

Sometimes we want to see how people change over time, as in studies of human development and lifespan. When we test the same group of individuals repeatedly over an extended period of time, we are conducting longitudinal research. Longitudinal research is a research design in which data-gathering is administered repeatedly over an extended period of time. For example, we may survey a group of individuals about their dietary habits at age 20, retest them a decade later at age 30, and then again...
13.5K
Motor Units00:46

Motor Units

A motor unit consists of two main components: a single efferent motor neuron (i.e., a neuron that carries impulses away from the central nervous system) and all of the muscle fibers it innervates. The motor neuron may innervate multiple muscle fibers, which are single cells, but only one motor neuron innervates a single muscle fiber.
62.0K
Motor Units01:13

Motor Units

The motor unit is a fundamental component of the neuromuscular system and plays a crucial role in coordinating muscle contractions. It consists of a somatic motor neuron, which connects and controls multiple skeletal muscle fibers, forming a single functional segment. The axon of the motor neuron branches out and establishes synaptic connections known as neuromuscular junctions with individual muscle fibers within the motor unit.
Motor units come in different sizes, with smaller units...
8.3K
Motor Unit Stimulation01:20

Motor Unit Stimulation

When the neuron of a motor unit fires an action potential, it triggers a series of events, leading to a twitch contraction in the muscle fibers. The process of excitation-contraction coupling is crucial in relaying the action potential to the muscle fibers.
The latent period of contraction marks the onset of excitation-contraction coupling, when the action potential propagates across the sarcolemma, preparing the muscle fibers for contraction. As the fibers enter the contraction phase, the...
3.9K
Hierarchy of Motor Control01:18

Hierarchy of Motor Control

The hierarchy of motor control refers to the different levels of organization and processing involved in controlling movement in the body. These levels range from higher cortical areas involved in planning and decision-making to lower spinal cord reflexes that respond automatically to external stimuli.
6.3K