Neural Oscillation Reveals Deficits in Visuospatial Working Memory in Children With Developmental Coordination Disorder

• Published in: Child development Vol. 88; no. 5; pp. 1716 - 1726
• Main Authors: Wang, Chun-Hao, Tseng, Yu-Ting, Liu, Dang, Tsai, Chia-Liang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Wiley for the Society for Research in Child Development 01.09.2017; Blackwell Publishing Ltd
• Subjects: Brain Waves - physiology; Cerebral Cortex - physiology; Cerebral Cortex - physiopathology; Child; Child Development - physiology; Children; Cognitive ability; Cognitive impairment; Coordination; Developmental coordination disorder; EEG; Electroencephalography; EMPIRICAL ARTICLES; Female; Humans; Male; Memory, Short-Term - physiology; Motor Skills Disorders - physiopathology; Neurodevelopmental disorders; Oscillation; Oscillations; Short term memory; Space Perception - physiology; Spatial memory; Visual memory; Visual Perception - physiology
• ISSN: 0009-3920; 1467-8624
• DOI: 10.1111/cdev.12708

The electroencephalographic (EEG) oscillations associated with visuospatial working memory (VSWM) were examined in children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD; 10-11 years; N = 29) and typically developing (TD) children (10-11 years; N = 29). Behaviorally, DCD showed poorer VSWM than TD, which coincided with the diminished ability of DCD in modulating neural oscillations. Furthermore, prestimulus oscillatory alpha activity was correlated with VSWM performance. The results suggest that children with DCD might have a reduced ability to encode and recognize new information, and in particular have difficulty in maintaining task-relevant information, resulting in poorer VSWM. This study thus concludes that changes in oscillatory EEG activity reflect some of the problems leading to cognitive deficits in DCD.