The concept of a specific disorder of motor function has been recognized for at least a century, with a gradual increase in awareness of this condition among health professionals and researchers developing over the past 30 years or so. First recognized in DSM-III-R (American Psychiatric Association 1987) as clumsy child syndrome, a number of labels have been applied to the disorder, including d...

This article describes a neural network model of speech motor skill acquisition and speech production that explains a wide range of data on variability, motor equivalence, coarticulation, and rate effects. Model parameters are learned during a babbling phase. To explain how infants learn language-specific variability limits, speech sound targets take the form of convex regions, rather than poin...

Concurrent feedback provided during acquisition can enhance performance of novel tasks. The 'guidance hypothesis' predicts that feedback provision leads to dependence and poor performance in its absence. However, appropriately structured feedback information provided through sound ('sonification') may not be subject to this effect. We test this directly using a rhythmic bimanual shape-tracing t...

How does the effectiveness of guiding cues influence the development of motor skill autonomy? We utilized two sets of guiding cues (lights vs. reversed-lights conditions) that differed in their effectiveness to control a left-right leverpress sequence in rats. We separately measured the development of stimulus control by panel lights on guiding-cues trials and the development of stimulus contro...

Recent research on bilateral transfer suggests that imagery training can facilitate the transfer of motor skill from a trained limb to that of an untrained limb above and beyond that of physical practice. To further explore this effect, the present study examined the influence of practice duration and task difficulty on the extent to which imagery training and physical training influences bilat...

We analyzed the relationship between goal achievement and execution variability in craftsmen who have acquired the highest "ultimate" skills of stone knapping. The goal of a knapping movement is defined as the vector of the final velocity of a hammer, crucial for detaching a flake and, consequently, for the shape of the final product. The execution of the movement is defined by the kinematic pa...

BACKGROUND Many children in the remote Fitzroy Valley region of Western Australia have prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE). Individuals with PAE can have neurodevelopmental impairments and be diagnosed with one of several types of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). Fine motor skills can be impaired by PAE, but no studies have developed a comprehensive profile of fine motor skills in a populati...

Problem/Condition Cerebral palsy is classified as a neuromuscular disorder with the main symptoms being motor, postural, neurological, and muscle tone impairments. This disorder is caused two different ways. Congenital cerebral palsy is caused by injury or illness at or before birth; this is the most common form. Acquired cerebral palsy is caused by an injury that occurs in early childhood. Cer...

Previous research has reported mixed findings regarding executive function (EF) abilities in developmental coordination disorder (DCD), which is diagnosed on the basis of significant impairments in motor skills. The current study aimed to assess whether these differences in study outcomes could result from the relative motor loads of the tasks used to assess EF in DCD. Children with DCD had sig...