title: Multisensory integration in children with Developmental Coordination Disorder.
abstract: This study examines how multisensory stimuli affect the performance of children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) on a choice reaction time (CRT) task. Ten children with DCD, identified using the Movement Assessment Battery for Children-2, aged 7-10 years (4F, M=8 y 3 m, SD=17 m) and 10 typically developing peers (TDC) (5F, M=8 y 4 m, SD=17 m) reached to unimodal (auditory (AO), visual (VO)) and bimodal (audiovisual (AV)) stimuli at one of three target locations. A multisensory (AV) stimulus reduced RTs for both groups (p<0.001, η(2)=0.36). While the children with DCD had a longer RT in all conditions, the AV stimulus produced RTs in children with DCD (494 ms) that were equivalent to those produced by the TDC to the VO stimulus (493 ms). Movement Time (DCD=486 ms; TDC=434 ms) and Path Length (DCD=25.6 cm; TDC=24.2 cm) were longer in children with DCD compared to TDC as expected (p<0.05). Only the TDC benefited from the AV information for movement control, as deceleration time of the dominant hand was seen to decrease when moving to an AV stimulus (p<0.05). Overall, data shows children with DCD do benefit from a bimodal stimulus to plan their movement, but do not for movement control. Further research is required to understand if this is a result of impaired multisensory integration.
authors.affiliation: School of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: R O A
authors.initials: RO
authors.lastname: Coats
authors.affiliation: School of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Britten
authors.affiliation: School of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Utley
authors.affiliation: School of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, United Kingdom. Electronic address: s.l.astill@leeds.ac.uk.
authors.forename: S L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Astill
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena / Q000502:physiology; D002648:Child; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019957:Motor Skills Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology; D010468:Perceptual Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Aiming; DCD; Kinematics; Multisensory information