title: Motor control and children with autism: deficit of anticipatory function?
abstract: This study aims at investigating how do anticipatory postural adjustments develop in children with autism, during a bimanual load-lifting task that required maintaining the stabilisation of the forearm despite imposed or voluntary unloading. Elbow angle and electromyographic were recorded on the child forearm supporting the load. The forearm stabilisation was as good in children with autism as in the control group. However, in children with autism, the latencies for both kinematics and muscular events indicated an increase of the duration of unloading. These results indicate the use of a feedback rather than a feed-forward mode of control. Impairments in both the building of internal representations and the mastering of timing parameters, could explain the deficient postural anticipation reported in children with autism.
authors.affiliation: Institut de Neurosciences Physiologiques et Cognitives - CNRS, 31 chemin J. Aiguier, 13402 Marseille Cedex 20, France. christina.schmitz@kbh.ki.se
authors.forename: Christina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schmitz
authors.forename: Joëlle
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Martineau
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Barthélémy
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Assaiante
mesh_terms: D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004550:Elbow / Q000503:physiopathology; D004576:Electromyography / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D017770:Lifting; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology; D004856:Postural Balance; D011187:Posture / Q000502:physiology; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time