Study protocol to examine the effects of acute exercise on motor learning and brain activity in children with developmental coordination disorder (ExLe-Brain-DCD).

Introduction: Developmental coordination disorder (DCD) is one of the most prevalent pediatric chronic conditions. Without proper intervention, significant delays in motor skill performance and learning may persist until adulthood. Moderate-to-vigorous physical exercise has been proven to improve motor learning (adaptation and consolidation) in children with or without disorders.

Children's strategies in drop-landing.

Introduction: Landing is a critical motor skill included in many activities performed in the natural environment by young children. Yet, landing is critically relevance to ensure proper stability and reduce injury. Furthermore, landing is an integral part of many fundamental motor skills which have been linked to greater physical activity, sport participation, and perceived competence in children.

Can exercise shape your brain? A review of aerobic exercise effects on cognitive function and neuro-physiological underpinning mechanisms.

It is widely accepted that physical exercise can be used as a tool for the prevention and treatment of various diseases or disorders. In addition, in the recent years, exercise has also been successfully used to enhance people's cognition. There is a large amount of research that has supported the benefits of physical exercise on human cognition, both in children and adults.

Gymnastics Experience Enhances the Development of Bipedal-Stance Multi-Segmental Coordination and Control During Proprioceptive Reweighting.

Performance and control of upright bipedal posture requires a constant and dynamic integration of relative contributions of different sensory inputs (i. e., sensory reweighting) to enable effective adaptations as individuals face environmental changes and perturbations.

Enhancing Children's Motor Memory Retention Through Acute Intense Exercise: Effects of Different Exercise Durations.

Physical exercise has been proposed as a viable means to stimulate motor learning. Exercise characteristics, including intensity and duration, may play a role in modulating the exercise effect on motor learning. While some evidence exists regarding the benefits of intense and relatively long exercise, little is known about the effect of short exercise bouts on motor learning, especially in children.

sEMG Analysis During Landing in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Pilot Study.

Purpose: The aim was to explore the timing and duration of muscle activation during a landing task in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and compare their responses to those of children who are developing typically (TD).

Methods: Six children (ages 3-4.5 years), half with ASD, hung from a vertical bar, landed, and reacted to a light cue that signaled the child to run to the right or left or to stay in place.

Age and gymnastic experience effects on sensory reweighting processes during quiet stand.

Background: The relative contribution of sensory inputs to control balance while standing is dynamically adjusted. These sensory reweighting processes could be impacted by age and sport expertise capabilities, especially when the sport emphasizes equilibrium like artistic gymnastics.

Research Question: The aim of this study was to explore the sensory reweighting processes to adjust standing posture in children and adults with different gymnastic expertise (gymnasts, G, and non-gymnast, NG).

Adaptation and Retention of a Perceptual-Motor Task in Children: Effects of a Single Bout of Intense Endurance Exercise.

We assessed the effect of an acute intense exercise bout on the adaptation and consolidation of a visuomotor adaptation task in children. We also sought to assess if exercise and learning task presentation order could affect task consolidation. Thirty-three children were randomly assigned to one of three groups: (a) exercise before the learning task, (b) exercise after the learning task, and (c) only learning task.

Timing, duration, and severity of iron deficiency in early development and motor outcomes at 9 months.

Background/objectives: Poorer motor development is reported in infants with iron deficiency (ID). The role of timing, duration and severity is unclear. We assessed relations between ID timing, duration, and severity and gross motor scores, neurological integrity, and motor behavior quality at 9 months.

Treadmill interventions in children under six years of age at risk of neuromotor delay.

Background: Delayed motor development may occur in children with Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, general developmental delay or children born preterm. It limits the child's exploration of the environment and can hinder cognitive and social-emotional development. Literature suggests that task-specific training, such as locomotor treadmill training, facilitates motor development.

Electromyographic and Kinematic Analysis of Trunk and Limb Muscles During a Holding Task in Individuals With Chronic Low Back Pain and Healthy Controls.

Background: Chronic low back pain (CLBP) affects a large proportion of the population and has been associated with different muscle dysfunctions. However, there is no consensus regarding muscle electromyography and kinematic patterns during fatiguing tasks.

Objective: To examine whether trunk and limb muscle fatigability and activation patterns of individuals suffering CLBP differ from those of healthy participants during a holding task.

The influence of fatigue and chronic low back pain on muscle recruitment patterns following an unexpected external perturbation.

Background: Chronic low back pain (CLBP) has been associated with altered trunk muscle responses as well as increased muscle fatigability. CLBP patients and fatigued healthy subjects could experience similar neuromuscular strategies to attempt to protect the spine. The current study examined muscle activation differences between healthy and CLBP subjects following a perturbation.

Enhancing consolidation of a rotational visuomotor adaptation task through acute exercise.

We assessed the effect of a single bout of intense exercise on the adaptation and consolidation of a rotational visuomotor task, together with the effect of the order of exercise presentation relative to the learning task. Healthy adult participants (n = 29) were randomly allocated to one of three experimental groups: (1) exercise before task practice, (2) exercise after task practice, and (3) task practice only. After familiarization with the learning task, participants undertook a baseline practice set.

An algorithm for detecting EMG onset/offset in trunk muscles during a reaction- stabilization test.

Background: Most of the EMG analysis algorithms developed to date don't detect the whole sequence of rhythmic and subtle changes that take place during the process of trunk stabilization. Indeed, the few recent methods that are capable of assessing these important EMG characteristics are highly complex and not accessible in most applied clinic contexts.

Objective: To validate and disseminate a software program suitable for detecting multiple and relatively small EMG bursts during a trunk stabilization response.

Differing Roles of Functional Movement Variability as Experience Increases in Gymnastics.

Current theories, like Ecological Dynamics, propose that inter-trial movement variability is functional when acquiring or refining movement coordination. Here, we examined how age-based experience levels of gymnasts constrained differences in emergent movement pattern variability during task performance. Specifically, we investigated different roles of movement pattern variability when gymnasts in different age groups performed longswings on a high bar, capturing the range of experience from beginner to advanced status.

Implicit learning and emotional responses in nine-month-old infants.

To study the interplay between motor learning and emotional responses of young infants, we developed a contingent learning paradigm that included two related, difficult, operant tasks. We also coded facial expression to characterise emotional response to learning. In a sample of nine-month-old healthy Chinese infants, 44.

Iron Supplementation in Pregnancy or Infancy and Motor Development: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background And Objective: Insufficient iron levels for optimal fetal and infant development is a concern during pregnancy and infancy. The goal of this study was to assess the effects of iron supplementation in pregnancy and/or infancy on motor development at 9 months.

Methods: The study was a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of infancy iron supplementation linked to an RCT of pregnancy iron supplementation, conducted in Hebei, China.

Strength, Static Balance, Physical Activity, and Age Predict Maximal Gait Speed in Healthy Older Adults From a Rural Community: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Purpose: Gait speed is related to physical function in older adults. This cross-sectional study examined the best predictors of maximal gait speed (MGS) among physical abilities, and general factors in healthy, rural community-dwelling older adults.

Methods: MGS, muscle strength, and postural sway were measured in 55 community-dwelling participants (age, 72.

Reliability and validity of a custom-made instrument including a hand-held dynamometer for measuring trunk muscle strength.

Background: Measuring isometric strength is necessary in many areas of health and sport. However, trunk muscles have some particular characteristics that make them difficult to evaluate with simple, inexpensive instruments.

Objective: To evaluate the reliability and validity of an instrument constructed with a hand-held dynamometer and a metallic structure (HHD+S) for measuring maximum isometric voluntary trunk muscle strength.

Effect of Achilles tendon vibration on posture in children.

This study investigated the effect of unilateral Achilles tendon vibration on postural response in children and young adults during standing. Thirty healthy subjects participated in this study including ten 6-year-old children (YC group), ten 10-year-old children (OC group), and ten young adults (YA group). Eight-second vibration was elicited in each trial from a small vibrator attached above the right Achilles tendon when participants stood barefoot on a force platform.

Comparative effects of horse exercise versus traditional exercise programs on gait, muscle strength, and body balance in healthy older adults.

This study evaluates the separate effect and retention of 12-week traditional (TE) and horse (HE) exercise programs on physical function in healthy older participants (61 to 87 years old). Thirty-eight participants were randomly assigned to three groups: TE (n = 17), HE (n = 10), and control group (n = 11). TE and HE underwent a supervised exercise program (3 day/week).

Changes in motor strategies across age performing a longswing on the high bar.

Purpose: Improvements in motor performance and coordination may be impacted by the interaction of practice and organismic constraints. It has been proposed that these aspects of motor learning are achieved at a different time rate: first, during placement of the events (performance), and second, segmental spatiotemporal relationships (coordination). We focused on the acquisition of the longswing in high bar as one basic skill in gymnastics.