Recent studies suggest that a night of sleep may play a similar functional role following motor imagery (MI) practice. Here we examined whether offline gains following MI of a finger tapping sequence depends on the degree of complexity of the motor sequence, and whether this improvement differentially affects the individual transitions of the motor-sequence pattern being learned. The data revea...

Are children superior to adults in consolidating procedural memory? This notion has been tied to "critical," early life periods of increased brain plasticity. Here, using a motor sequence learning task, we show, in experiment 1, that a) the rate of learning during a training session, b) the gains accrued, without additional practice, within a 24 hours post-training interval (delayed consolidati...

UNLABELLED In this exploratory study, we investigated whether or not people who stutter (PWS) show motor practice and learning changes similar to those of people who do not stutter (PNS). To this end, five PWS and five PNS repeated a set of non-words at two different rates (normal and fast) across three test sessions (T1, T2 on the same day and T3 on a separate day, at least 1 week apart). The ...

The purposes of this article are 1) to compare the similarities and differences between norm-referenced and criterion-referenced tests and 2) to summarize how each should be used in the assessment of developmental performance in children. Specific developmental assessments, the populations they address, and the information they provide are described briefly. The need for additional criterion-re...

Convergent findings point to a left-sided specialization for the representation of learned actions in right-handed humans, but it is unknown whether analogous hemispheric specialization exists for motor skill learning. In the present study, we explored this question by comparing the effects of anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over either left or right motor cortex (M1) on m...

Underachievers are children who show academic performance that is lower than what would be expected for their IQ. Previous research has investigated a number of variables that might explain underachievement and recently fine motor skills (FMS) have been implicated as playing an important role. We extend this work by exploring the influence of FMS and attention on underachievement and achievemen...

objectives: developmental coordination disorder (dcd) is a motor skill disorder which impacts upon a child, s ability to perform age-appropriate activity of daily living and academic performance. they have problems in gross & fine motors, their upper limb coordination are impaired, too. in this way, we decided to compare motors skills with botmp test in children with dcd and their normal peers....

Recent years have seen significant progress in our understanding of the neural substrates of motor skill learning. Advances in neuroimaging provide new insight into functional reorganization associated with the acquisition, consolidation, and retention of motor skills. Plastic changes involving structural reorganization in gray and white matter architecture that occur over shorter time periods ...

The present study investigated the effects of different ability conceptions on motor skills learning in 6-, 10-, and 14-year-old children. In each age group, different groups were given either inherent-ability or acquirableskill instructions before they began practicing a throwing task. Participants were blindfolded and were asked to throw beanbags at a target placed on the floor at a distance ...

OBJECTIVE In order to effectively promote physical activity (PA) during childhood, and across the lifespan, a better understanding of the role of early motor skill development on child and adult PA is needed. METHODS Here, we propose a conceptual model delineating the hypothesized influence of motor skill development on child and adult PA, while providing an overview of the current empirical ...