Human Movement Science

The study of the emergence and stability of bimanual and interlimb coordination patterns in children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) has shown that they encounter greater difficulties in coupling their limbs compared to typically developing (TD) children. Verbal cues have been identified as strategies to direct children's attention to more relevant task information, thus potentially improving motor performance. Consequently, this study investigated the effect of providing verbal cues on the execution of bimanual tasks in children with and without probable DCD...

Across-task binding is defined as the stimulus/response of one task being linked to the response of another task. The purpose of the present experiment was to determine across-task binding in a continuous movement sequence task with an auditory task of high and low pitch tones and the development of a movement sequence representation. According to the two systems theory of sequence learning, we expected that the developed representation in the across-task binding context relies on the multi-dimensional system rather than on the unidimensional system which is restricted to a set of modules where each module processed information along one task/dimension...

Postural stability is essential for performing daily activities and preventing falls, whereby suspensory strategy with knee flexion may play a role in postural control. However, the contribution of the suspensory strategy for postural control during sudden lateral perturbation remains unclear. We aimed to determine how suspensory strategy contributed to postural adjustment during sudden perturbation in the lateral direction and what knee flexion setting maximized its effect. Eighteen healthy young adults (10 male and 8 female) participated in this study...

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have yielded conflicting results on the facilitative effects of concurrent visual feedback (CVFB) on postural control. In addition, these effects have generally been assessed only during a single postural task, and their scope has been limited to training sessions in the acquisition phase but not in the later retention phase. One explanation for these conflicting results is that assessing postural control during a single postural task, such as quiet stance, may not be sufficiently challenging for the postural control system to infer balance abilities...

Based on the OPTIMAL theory of motor learning (Wulf & Lewthwaite, 2016), optimal motor performance and learning will occur through the influence of the two motivational factors of enhanced expectancies and autonomy support (self-controlled practice) as well as the attentional factor of the external focus of attention. Recently, some researchers tested this theory on different motor tasks using novices. However, it seems that this theory has not been tested in skilled athletes. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of self-controlled practice and focus of attention on the accuracy of free throws of skilled basketball players...

Although motor imagery and working memory (WM) appear to be closely linked, no previous studies have demonstrated direct evidence for the relationship between motor imagery and WM abilities. This study investigated the association between WM and gait motor imagery and focused on the individual differences in young adults. This study included 33 participants (mean age: 22.2 ± 0.9 years). We used two methods to measure the ability of different WM domains: verbal and visuo-spatial WM. Gait motor imagery accuracy was assessed via the mental chronometry paradigm...

Human balance control relies on various sensory modalities, and conflict of sensory input may result in postural instability. Virtual reality (VR) technology allows to train balance under conflicting sensory information by decoupling visual from somatosensory and vestibular systems, creating additional demands on sensory reweighting for balance control. However, there is no metric for the design of visual input manipulations that can induce persistent sensory conflicts to perturb balance. This limits the possibilities to generate sustained sensory reweighting processes and design well-defined training approaches...

BACKGROUND: Persons after stroke present with an altered arm swing during walking. Given the known influence of the arm swing on gait, it is important to identify the characteristics of persons with stroke with different arm-to-leg coordination patterns during walking. METHODS: Twenty-five persons after stroke walked on a self-paced treadmill at comfortable walking speed. The frequency of shoulder movements per stride was detected by Fast Fourier transform analysis on the kinematic data for hemiplegic shoulder movements in the sagittal plane...

Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is a movement disorder in which atypical sensory processing may underly movement atypicality. However, whether altered sensory processing is domain-specific or global in nature, are unanswered questions. Here, we measured for the first time, different aspects of sensory processing and spatiotemporal integration in the same cohort of adult participants with DCD (N = 16), possible DCD (pDCD, N = 12) and neurotypical adults (NT, N = 28). Haptic perception was reduced in both DCD and the extended DCD + pDCD groups when compared to NT adults...

Human whole-body angular momentum (WBAM) during walking typically follows a consistent pattern, making it a valuable indicator of the state of balance. However, calculating WBAM is labor-intensive, where the kinematic data for all body segments is needed, that is, based on a full-body model. In this study, we focused on selecting appropriate segments for estimating sagittal-plane WBAM during both unperturbed and perturbed gaits, which were segments with significant angular momentum contributions. Those major segments were constructed as a simplified model, and the sagittal-plane WBAM based on a simplified model was calculated by combining the angular momenta of the selected segments...

Auditory metronomes have been used to preserve movement consistency when examining local dynamic stability (LDS) and coordination variability (CV) of lumbar spine motion during repetitive movements. However, the potential influence of the metronome itself on these outcome measures has rarely been considered. Therefore, this study investigated the influence of different metronome paces (i.e., lifting speeds) on measures of lumbar spine LDS and thorax-pelvis CV during a repetitive lifting/lowering task in comparison to self-paced movements...

BACKGROUND: Capturing a measure of movement quality during a complex walking task may indicate the earliest signs of detrimental changes to the brain due to beta amyloid (Aβ) deposition and be a potential differentiator of older adults at elevated and low risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. This study aimed to determine: 1) age-related differences in gait speed, stride length, and gait smoothness while transitioning from an even to an uneven walking surface, by comparing young adults (YA) and older adults (OA), and 2) if gait speed, stride length, and gait smoothness in OA while transitioning from an even to an uneven walking surface is influenced by the amount of Aβ deposition present in an OA's brain...

Children's movements are highly complex, and thus require measurements that capture various gross motor strategies. This study examined whether aspects of individual differences in children's gross motor movement patterns could be captured in virtual reality (VR) and how motor movements could be conceptualized through freezing-freeing patterns of degrees of freedom. To this end, a three-minute VR scenario was developed for children to freely explore, play, and move around without further instructions, and their movement strategies were simultaneously captured by a non-invasive inertial motion capture system...

OBJECTIVE: Dyad motor practice is characterized by two learners alternating between physical and observational practice, which can lead to better motor outcomes and reduce practice time compared to physical practice alone. Robot-assisted therapy has become an established neurorehabilitation tool but is limited by high therapy cost and access. Implementing dyad practice in robot-assisted rehabilitation has the potential to improve therapeutic outcomes and/or to achieve them faster. This study aims to determine the effects of dyad practice on motor performance in a wrist-robotic environment to evaluate its potential use in robotic rehabilitation settings...

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to examine the longitudinal changes in trunk acceleration, gait speed, and paretic leg motion in patients with post-stroke hemiparesis, the relationships between variables at each time point, and whether initial trunk acceleration and gait parameters were related to gait speed 2 months later. METHODS: Gait was assessed monthly in patients who could walk under supervision after stroke onset. Gait parameters, including gait speed and trailing limb angle (TLA), were measured...

People with Parkinson's disease (pwPD) have reduced adaptability to postural control during prolonged standing compared to neurologically healthy individuals (control). Objective. The study aimed to characterize postural changes during prolonged standing and their effect on postural control in pwPD compared to control. We recorded the body sway of the second lumbar vertebra of 23 pwPD and 23 control while they performed prolonged standing (15 min). The number and amplitude of the body sway patterns (shifts, fidgets, and drifts), the root mean square, velocity, and frequency of the body sway were analyzed...

This study described intra-task fine motor skill components of the Manual Dexterity tasks (Posting Coins; PC, Threading Beads; TB, Drawing Trail; DT) of the Movement Assessment Battery for Children-2 Test for typically developing children and investigated age- and sex-related differences. Three- to six-year-old Dutch children (n = 182, Mage 4.5 ± 1.1 years, 51.1% boys) were observed with regard to intra-task fine motor skill components, and changes in intra-task components of the Manual Dexterity tasks were analyzed across age using of the Kruskal-Wallis test with post-hoc Mann-Whitney U tests, and differences between sexes using the Mann-Whitney U test...

Synchronizing movement with external stimuli is important in musicians and athletes. This study investigated the effects of sound characteristics, including sound with harmonics (square wave) and without harmonics (sine wave) and levels of expertise in sports and music on rhythmic ability. Thirty-two university students participated in the study. The participants were divided into sixteen music education (ME) and sixteen physical education (PE) majors. They were asked to perform finger tapping tasks with 1,2 and 3 Hz beat rates, tapping in time with the sine and square wave beat produced by a metronome...

BACKGROUND: Pain-related cognitions are associated with motor control changes in people with chronic low-back pain (CLBP). The mechanism underlying this association is unclear. We propose that perceived threat increases muscle-spindle-reflex-gains, which reduces the effect of mechanical perturbations, and simultaneously decreases movement precision. AIM: To evaluate effects of CLBP and pain-related cognitions on the impact of mechanical perturbations on trunk movement, and associations between these perturbation effects and movement precision...

Balance perturbations are used to study locomotor instability. However, these perturbations are designed to provoke a specific context of instability that may or may not generalize to a broader understanding of falls risk. The purpose of this study was to determine if the effect of balance perturbations on instability generalizes across contexts. 29 younger adults and 28 older adults completed four experimental trials, including unperturbed walking and walking while responding to three perturbation contexts: mediolateral optical flow, treadmill-induced slips, and lateral waist-pulls...