Introduction: In a population-based study of 1,912 community-dwelling persons of 45 years and older, we investigated the relation between age and fine motor skills using the Archimedes spiral-drawing test. Also, we studied the effect of brain volume on fine motor skills.
Methods: Participants were required to trace a template of a spiral on an electronic drawing board. Clinical scores from this test were obtained by visual assessment of the drawings. Quantitative measures were objectively determined from the recorded data of the drawings. As tremor is known to occur increasingly with advancing age, we also rated drawings to assess presence of tremor.
Results: We found presence of a tremor in 1.3% of the drawings. In the group without tremor, we found that older age was related to worse fine motor skills. Additionally, participants over the age of 75 showed increasing deviations from the template when drawing the spiral. Larger cerebral volume and smaller white matter lesion volume were related to better spiral-drawing performance, whereas cerebellar volume was not related to spiral-drawing performance.
Conclusion: Older age is related to worse fine motor skills, which can be captured by clinical scoring or quantitative measures of the Archimedes spiral-drawing test. Persons with a tremor performed worse on almost all measures of the spiral-drawing test. Furthermore, larger cerebral volume is related to better fine motor skills.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2014.00259 | DOI Listing |
Early Hum Dev
January 2025
Department of Neonatology, Máxima Medical Center, Veldhoven, Noord-Brabant, the Netherlands.
Background: Although preterm birth is associated with deficits in both motor and cognitive functioning, the association between early motor skills and cognitive outcomes at a later age remains underexplored.
Aim: To evaluate associations between motor skills at age 5.5 and cognitive functioning at age 8.
Eur J Pediatr
January 2025
CESTA VON, Bratislava, Slovakia.
Unlabelled: High rates of childhood neurodisability are reported among the Roma, Europe's largest ethnic minority community. Interventions targeting early child development (ECD) during the first 2 years of life can improve neurodevelopmental outcomes in vulnerable children; however, evidence from Roma preschoolers is scarce. In a quasi-experimental observational study, we compared neurodevelopmental outcomes at age 2 years, measured on the INTERGROWTH-21st Project Neurodevelopmental Assessment (INTER-NDA), between Roma children receiving a community-based ECD intervention (RI, n = 98), and age- and sex-matched Roma and non-Roma children (RC, n = 99 and NRC, n = 54, respectively) who did not receive the intervention in Eastern Slovakia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeurotoxicol Teratol
January 2025
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, 405 N. Mathews Ave., Urbana, IL 61821, USA. Electronic address:
Background: Exposure to maternal stress and depression during pregnancy can have a marked impact on birth outcomes and child development, escalating the likelihood of preterm birth, lower birth weight, and various domains of physical and neurodevelopment.
Methods: The joint ECHO.CA.
Am J Hum Genet
January 2025
Institute of Human Genetics, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, 20246 Hamburg, Germany; Institute of Human Genetics, University of Regensburg, 93053 Regensburg, Germany; Institute of Clinical Human Genetics, University Hospital Regensburg, 93053 Regensburg, Germany. Electronic address:
BCL11B is a Cys2-His2 zinc-finger (C2H2-ZnF) domain-containing, DNA-binding, transcription factor with established roles in the development of various organs and tissues, primarily the immune and nervous systems. BCL11B germline variants have been associated with a variety of developmental syndromes. However, genotype-phenotype correlations along with pathophysiologic mechanisms of selected variants mostly remain elusive.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Am Chem Soc
January 2025
Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Feringa Nobel Prize Scientist Joint Research Center, Frontiers Science Center for Materiobiology and Dynamic Chemistry, Institute of Fine Chemicals, School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, P. R. China.
Understanding and effectively controlling molecular conformational changes are essential for developing responsive and dynamic molecular systems. Here, we report that an oriented external electric field (OEEF) is an effective catalyst for the cis-trans isomerization of stiff-stilbene, a key component of overcrowded alkene-based rotary motors. This reversible isomerization occurs under ambient conditions, is free from side reactions, and has been verified using ultraperformance liquid chromatography and UV-vis absorption spectroscopy.
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