Adolescent development of motor imagery in a visually guided pointing task.
The development of action representation during adolescence was investigated using a visually guided pointing motor task (VGPT) to test motor imagery. Forty adolescents (24 males; mean age 13.1 years) and 33 adults (15 males; mean age 27.5 years) were instructed to both execute and imagine hand movements from a starting point to a target of varying size. Reaction time (RT) was measured for both Execution (E) and Imagery (I) conditions. There is typically a close association between time taken to execute and image actions in adults because action execution and action simulation rely on overlapping neural circuitry. Further, representations of actions are governed by the same speed-accuracy trade-off as real actions, as expressed by Fitts' Law. In the current study, performance on the VGPT in both adolescents and adults conformed to Fitts' Law in E and I conditions. However, the strength of association between E and I significantly increased with age, reflecting a refinement in action representation between adolescence and adulthood.
Choudhury
Suparna
S
Behavioural and Brain Sciences, Institute of Child Health, University College London, 30 Guilford Street, London WC1N 1EH, UK.
Charman
Tony
T
Bird
Victoria
V
Blakemore
Sarah-Jayne
SJ
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination; D007206:Individuality; D008297:Male; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011930:Reaction Time; D012858:Size Perception