Development of motor control of children performed by unilateral and simultaneous bilateral movements

Research Project

Project/Area Number	12680050
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	体育学
Research Institution	Keio University
Principal Investigator	SASAKI Reiko Keio University, Institute of Physical Education, Associate Professor, 体育研究所, 助教授 (80178673)
Project Period (FY)	2000 – 2001
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 2001)
Budget Amount *help	¥2,200,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,200,000) Fiscal Year 2001: ¥500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000) Fiscal Year 2000: ¥1,700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,700,000)
Keywords	Motor development / Reaction time / Children / Bilateral deficit / Handgrip / 発揮出力 / 把握動作 / 発達
Research Abstract	Dexterous movements are based on an adequate control of several segments of the body simultaneously, with optimal timing and muscular strength. Then it is necessary to inhibit useless parts for the movement. A performance of the children at an early stage of development seems to exert their movements more facilitative rather than inhibitive. In this research, some experiments ware performed to elucidated the control mechanisms in a rapid movement (reaction time task) of children. And it could to be clarified the developmental characteristics of them. Subjects were 12 adults (aged 19-22) and 9 children (aged 5-11). All subjects ware asked to perform a reaction time task by a handgrip either by a single hand or by both hands in response to auditory stimuli. The reaction time and grip strength ware measured in each trial. The following result was obtained. In children, comparing the reaction time of unilateral with bilateral on each side (right and left), it was observed that "bilateral facilitation" phenomenon, which meant that the latency of initiation of the response from the onset of the auditory stimulus was shortened relative to unilateral response. Particularly, that was remarkably observed on non-dominant hand side or on the side in which slower response was exerted in unilateral response task. Those phenomena of children could be different from adults in which bilateral deficit was observed. It seems to occur that some facilitation rather than inhibition during the task exertion in the contralateral homologous muscle in children.