Differences in accuracy and vividness of motor imagery in children with and without Developmental Coordination Disorder

Motor imagery during action observation enhances imitation of everyday rhythmical actions in children with and without developmental coordination disorder

“…Although it is a somewhat subjective measure, the MIQ-C results support this, since the kinaesthetic imagery subcategory was significantly lower for DCD than for TD children. This finding is consistent with the majority of DCD imitation research, whereby MI is less accurate and less efficient in children with DCD than TD children (Fuchs & Caçola, 2018;Wilson et al, 2001;Williams et al, 2011;Reynolds et al, 2015a).…”

Motor imagery during action observation enhances automatic imitation in children with and without developmental coordination disorder

“…In line with previous research using the same paradigm in adults (Eaves et al, 2016b), imagining rhythmical actions at fast and slow speeds across trials resulted in a significant modulation of response cycle times in children both with and without DCD (research question 2.2). A reduced MI ability is widely reported across a range of tasks in DCD children (Ferguson et al, 2015;Fuchs & Caçola, 2018;Williams et al, 2008;Wilson et al, 2001). The task used in the present study, however, was unlike those typically used in DCD studies.…”

“…With regards to MI ability, children with DCD often exhibit reduced performance in imagery tasks compared to TD children (Adams et al, 2014;Fuchs & Caçola, 2018;Reynolds et al, 2015a). In TD children and healthy adults, MI typically abides by the biomechanical constraints associated with physical execution (for e.g., Fitts' Law;Fitts, 1954).…”

Combined action observation and motor imagery facilitates visuomotor adaptation in children with developmental coordination disorder

“…This link to internal models is evidenced through research showing that motor imagery activates similar brain regions to those involved in motor skill planning and execution (Hardwick, Caspers, Eickhoff, & Swinnen, 2018), evokes similar eye-movement patterns (Causer, McCormick, & Holmes, 2013) and similar temporal congruence (i.e., mental chronometry) between imagined and executed actions (Guillot, Hoyek, Louis, & Collet, 2012). In accordance with the IMD hypothesis, individuals with DCD exhibit impairments in mental chronometry ability (Ferguson, Wilson & Smits-Engelsman, 2015), reduced ability to imagine egocentric transformations of the body (Barhoun et al, 2019), an impairment in the accuracy of motor imagery (Fuchs & Caçola, 2018) and reduced corticospinal excitability during motor imagery (Hyde et al, 2018).…”