 |
| Research article summary (published 29 Nov 2002): |
Timing accuracy and variability in children with prenatal exposure to alcohol.
Full Abstract
BACKGROUND:
Prenatal exposure to alcohol (prenatal alcohol exposure) is associated with gross and fine motor skill dysfunction. The present study examined performance on two types of timing tasks to determine the extent to which prenatal alcohol exposure affects perception, movement planning, and movement execution during tasks that require temporal processing.
METHODS:
Fourteen children with confirmed heavy prenatal alcohol exposure and 22 control children (aged 5-10 years) completed two timing tasks:
a coincident-anticipation timing task that primarily assessed central processing, and a movement-speed timing task that evaluated the motor component of temporal processing. Absolute error, signed error, and variability of the participant's signed error were the dependent variables.
RESULTS:
For both timing tasks, children with prenatal alcohol exposure were significantly less accurate and more variable than control children, indicating that both the sensory-perceptual and motor components of temporal processing were disrupted in alcohol-exposed children.
CONCLUSIONS:
Alcohol-exposed children had difficulty producing accurate and consistent motor responses when intercepting a moving target or moving through a spatial target in a specified amount of time. Disruptions in these motor timing behaviors may be indicative of alcohol-related cerebellar or basal ganglia damage.
Learn Faster Today Improve your study skills
Author information
Author/s: Wass, Tara S (TS); Simmons, Roger W (RW); Thomas, Jennifer D (JD); Riley, Edward P (EP);
Affiliation: Department of Child & Family Studies, University of Tennessee, Knoxville 37996, USA. twass(-atsign-)utk.edu
Grants: AA07456 (Agency:United States NIAAA) ; AA10417 (Agency:United States NIAAA)
Journal and publication information
Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.
Journal: Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research (Alcohol Clin Exp Res), published in United States. (Language: eng)
Reference: 2002-Dec; vol 26 (issue 12) : pp 1887-96
Dates: Created 2002/12/24; Completed 2003/06/05; Revised 2007/11/14;
PMID: 12500114, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)
Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.
External Links for this article (including full text providers, if available):
Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.
This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.
MeSH headings (categories)
This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.
|
|
Related articles
This article has not been indexed for related articles as yet, however you can still use the live related article search links below.
See a large map of 100+ related articles.