Unimanual and bimanual continuous movements benefit from visual instructions in persons with down syndrome

Shannon Ringenbach, Genna M. Mulvey, Chih Chia Chen, Michelle L. Jung

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

The authors aim was to understand how persons with Down syndrome (DS) perform different tasks and to assess if there were any differences in performance based on the type of instructions. This is important because of neurological differences in persons with DS and neurological demands for performing different types of tasks. Twenty right-handed participants with DS, 20 chronological age-matched (CA), and 20 mental age-matched (MA) performed unimanual, bimanual, discrete, and continuous drumming following visual, auditory, and verbal instructions. Overall, discrete drumming was performed with shorter movement times than continuous drumming and unimanual drumming was performed with shorter movement amplitude than bimanual drumming. With respect to instructions, persons with DS performed with smaller amplitudes, thus more efficient movements, following the visual instructions than auditory and verbal instructions for all types of tasks, whereas CA performed similarly with all instructions and MA performed with smaller amplitudes with visual instructions than auditory instructions. These results suggest that visual instruction provides the best information for people with DS to aid in performance of many different types of movements.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)233-239
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of motor behavior
Volume44
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 1 2012

Keywords

  • Down syndrome
  • discrete
  • instructions
  • perceptuomotor

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biophysics
  • Orthopedics and Sports Medicine
  • Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
  • Cognitive Neuroscience

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