Frontal-parietal event related potential correlates of motor planning deficits in children with developmental coordination disorder

Imitation and praxis deficits are key characteristics of developmental coordination disorder (DCD). Although behavioral impairments in imitation have been widely studied, less is known about motor preparation and attentional processes underlying thwillese difficulties. This study examined imitation of meaningless gestures to better understand motor planning deficits in children with DCD while controlling for involuntary mirror movements.

Forty-nine children aged 7-10 years participated (DCD: n = 24; typically developing [TD]: n = 25). Participants performed meaningless hand and finger gestures within a two-step cue-target paradigm designed to assess event-related potentials (ERPs) related to preparatory attention and motor planning. After a visual cue, an imperative stimulus appeared 1100 ms later, prompting response execution. Offline video analysis measured mirror movements-defined as involuntary replication of the target posture in the non-task hand-and imitation errors during unilateral performance.

Children with DCD showed significantly prolonged ERP latencies during preparatory and motor planning stages compared to TD peers, with no amplitude differences and no group differences in late attention positivity. Behavioral analyses revealed significantly more mirror movements across hand and finger postures in the DCD group (all p ≤ .002). Additionally, left-finger imitation errors were higher in the congruent condition for children with DCD (p < .001).

Children with DCD demonstrate delayed neural processing during motor preparation and planning, indicating temporal inefficiency and impaired interhemispheric motor regulation. Increased mirror movements and imitation errors further reflect difficulties in coordinating voluntary and involuntary motor control.