BACKGROUND Fine motor skill impairments are common in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), significantly affecting quality of life. Sensory inputs reaching the primary motor cortex (M1) from the somatosensory cortex (S1) are likely involved in fine motor skill and specifically motor learning. However, the role of these connections has not been directly investigated in humans. This study aimed to inv...

Background: Fine motor skill impairments are common in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), significantly impacting quality of life. Sensory inputs reaching the primary motor cortex (M1) from the somatosensory cortex (S1) are likely involved in fine motor skill, and specifically motor learning. However, the role of these connections has not been directly investigated in humans. This study aimed to i...

Despite considerable research on the learning of simple motor acts (e.g., finger tapping), we know relatively little about the changes that occur in higher order representations of complex motor skills as expertise develops (Annett, 1995; Colley, 1989; Holding, 1989; Jeannerod, 1994; MacKay, 1989; Rosenbaum, Inhoff, & Gordon, 1984; Schmidt, 1988). In the present study, the relation between the ...

The primary motor cortex (M1) supports motor skill learning, yet little is known about the genes that contribute to motor cortical plasticity. Such knowledge could identify candidate molecules whose targeting might enable a new understanding of motor cortical functions, and provide new drug targets for the treatment of diseases which impair motor function, such as ischemic stroke. Here, we asse...

The primary motor cortex (M1) plays a critical role in early aspects of motor skill learning. Given the notion of inter-hemispheric competition, unilateral disruption of M1 may increase excitability of the unaffected motor cortex and thus improve motor learning with the ipsilateral hand. We applied slow-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) before the initiation of pract...

Motor learning requires practice over a period of time and depends on brain plasticity, yet even for relatively simple movements, there are multiple practice strategies that can be used for skill acquisition. We investigated the role of intracortical inhibition in the primary motor cortex (M1) during motor skill learning. Event-related transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was used to assess ...

Specific relations between executive functions (working memory capacity, planning and problem-solving, inhibitory control) and motor skill performance (anticipatory motor planning, manual dexterity) were examined in 5- to 6-year-old children (N = 40). Results showed that the two motor skill components were not correlated. Additionally, it was found that response planning performance was a signi...

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between motor skill impairments and motor imagery ability in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The participants were 19 children with ASD, aged 7 16 years. We conducted two tasks: movement assessment battery for children-2 (MABC-2) and hand rotation task. The MABC-2 is a motor test that can assess total motor ability, and th...