Golenia, L. (Laura) (2015) Motor Variability In Children – More Than Noise: The structure of variability in joint coordination for 10-year-old children and adults during reaching. thesis, Human Movement Sciences.
Full text available on request.Abstract
Until now, high motor variability in children has generally been attributed to an increased internal neuromotor noise that is present in the developing nervous system. We examined the idea that not all of the variability exhibited in children´s upper extremity movements is noise, by examining the structure of variability in joint coordination of 10-year-old children and adults when performing goal-directed reaching movements. We also examined the role of vision of the moving limb in these processes. The Uncontrolled Manifold method was used to partition variability of joint coordination patterns into variability de-stabilizing the end-effector (NGEV) and variability stabilizing the end-effector (GEV) during reaching (Scholz & Schöner, 1999). Results showed that GEV was always larger than NGEV. 10-year-old children had higher levels of NGEV than adults, reflecting more neuromotor noise. Importantly, children had also substantial more GEV than adults. No age-related differences in the ratio of the two variability components were found. Vision does not affect the structure of variability. It seems that the neuromotor system of children compensates for the higher level of noise by increasing the exploration of joint coordination patterns that stabilize end-effector positions, resulting in a similar stabilization of the end-effect as in adults. This can prevent children from having a pronounced loss of accuracy. Keywords: Reaching, coordination, variability, Uncontrolled manifold method
| Item Type: | Thesis (UNSPECIFIED) |
|---|---|
| Supervisor name: | Schoemaker, M.M. and Mouton, L.J. and Bongers, R.M. |
| Faculty: | Medical Sciences |
| Date Deposited: | 08 Apr 2022 13:47 |
| Last Modified: | 08 Apr 2022 13:47 |
| URI: | https://umcg.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/3083 |
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