Nathan C Foster1,2, Simon J Bennett2, Joe Causer2, Digby Elliott3, Geoffrey Bird4,5, Spencer J Hayes6. 1. Cognition, Motion and Neuroscience Unit, Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genoa, Italy. 2. Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK. 3. Department of Kinesiology, McMaster University, Ontario, Canada. 4. Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. 5. Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK. 6. Department of Psychology and Human Development, Institute of Education, University College London, UK.
Abstract
Whilst autistic individuals develop new internal action models during sensorimotor learning, the acquired movements are executed less accurately and with greater variability. Such movement profiles are related to differences in sensorimotor integration and/or altered feedforward/feedback sensorimotor control. We investigated the processes underlying sensorimotor learning in autism by quantifying accuracy and variability, relative timing, and feedforward and feedback control. Although autistic individuals demonstrated significant sensorimotor learning across trials, which was facilitated by processing knowledge-of-results feedback, motor execution was less accurate than non-autistic individuals. Kinematic analysis indicated that autistic individuals showed significantly greater spatial variability at peak acceleration, but comparable spatial variability at peak velocity. These kinematic markers suggest that autistic movement profiles are driven by specific differences in sensorimotor control processes (i.e., internal action models) associated with planning and regulating the forces required to execute the movement. The reduction of variability at peak velocity indicates intact early feedback-based sensorimotor control in autism. Understanding how feedforward and feedback-based control processes operate provides an opportunity to explore how these control processes influence the acquisition of socio-motor actions in autism. Autism Res 2020, 13: 423-435.
Whilst autistic individuals develop new internal action models during sensorimotor learning, the acquired movements are executed less accurately and with greater variability. Such movement profiles are related to differences in sensorimotor integration and/or altered feedforward/feedback sensorimotor control. We investigated the processes underlying sensorimotor learning in autism by quantifying accuracy and variability, relative timing, and feedforward and feedback control. Although autistic individuals demonstrated significant sensorimotor learning across trials, which was facilitated by processing knowledge-of-results feedback, motor execution was less accurate than non-autistic individuals. Kinematic analysis indicated that autistic individuals showed significantly greater spatial variability at peak acceleration, but comparable spatial variability at peak velocity. These kinematic markers suggest that autistic movement profiles are driven by specific differences in sensorimotor control processes (i.e., internal action models) associated with planning and regulating the forces required to execute the movement. The reduction of variability at peak velocity indicates intact early feedback-based sensorimotor control in autism. Understanding how feedforward and feedback-based control processes operate provides an opportunity to explore how these control processes influence the acquisition of socio-motor actions in autism. Autism Res 2020, 13: 423-435.
Authors: Yu Wei Chua; Szu-Ching Lu; Anna Anzulewicz; Krzystof Sobota; Christos Tachtatzis; Ivan Andonovic; Philip Rowe; Jonathan Delafield-Butt Journal: Dev Sci Date: 2021-12-06