Development of motor planning in children: Disentangling elements of the planning process

Hilde Krajenbrink,Jessica Lust,Peter Wilson,Bert Steenbergen

doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2020.104945

Abstract

Second-order motor planning of grasping movements is usually measured using tasks that focus on the relative (dis)comfort of end posture of the arm and hand regardless of the objective outcome of performance. This may underestimate the ability for forward planning in young children. In the current study, we aimed to examine the developmental mechanisms of motor planning in children using a task that necessitates second-order motor planning for its successful completion. We tested 311 children (aged 5–12 years) who were instructed to grasp and rotate a hexagonal knob over 60°, 120°, 180°, or 240°. The 180° and 240° rotation conditions necessitated adjustment of the preferred start grip for successful task completion. We examined successful or unsuccessful task completion, reaction time (RT), and movement time (MT) as a function of task demands (i.e., rotation angle) and age. Results showed that most children of all ages were able to successfully complete the task in the 180° rotation condition. In the most demanding 240° rotation condition, many children had difficulty in completing the task, but successful task completion increased with age. Time course analysis showed increased RT and MT with increasing task demands. Furthermore, whereas RT decreased with age for each rotation angle, MT remained stable with the exception of an increase in MT for the most demanding rotation condition. Together, these results exemplify that children aged 5–12 years are indeed able to engage in forward planning. With development, second-order motor planning proficiency increases, especially for more demanding movements, and the process becomes more efficient.

Highlights

Motor planning is an important aspect of everyday motor behavior, underpinning much of the action repertoire of healthy individuals (Rosenbaum, Meulenbroek, & Vaughan, 2004)
Whereas reaction time (RT) decreased with age for each rotation angle, movement time (MT) remained stable with the exception of an increase in MT for the most demanding rotation condition
In line with our argumentation, we found that many children across all ages (5–12 years) were able to successfully complete the hexagonal knob task (HKT) under conditions of relatively low task demands (i.e., 180° rotation condition)

Summary

Introduction

Motor planning is an important aspect of everyday motor behavior, underpinning much of the action repertoire of healthy individuals (Rosenbaum, Meulenbroek, & Vaughan, 2004). The ESC effect is taken as an indicator of second-order motor planning and thereby a mature feedforward or internal modeling system (Rosenbaum, Chapman, Weigelt, Weiss, & van der Wel, 2012; Wolpert, 1997). The reduced tendency of children to show ESC has been taken as an indicator of an immature internal modeling system (Fuelscher et al, 2016). It might not have been valid to infer immaturity of second-order planning ability from a reduced ESC strategy in these tasks (Adams, 2017). We examined the development of second-order motor planning in children using a task that necessitates second-order motor planning for its successful completion. In addition to successful or unsuccessful goal achievement, we examined reaction time (RT) and movement time (MT) to study the effects of movement demands on the motor planning process

Objectives

Results

Conclusion