Emi Furukawa

Along with the comparator model, the perception of action-outcome regularity is involved in the generation of sense of agency. In addition, the perception of action-outcome regularity is related to motor performance. However, no studies have examined the developmental changes in the perception of action-outcome regularity. The current study measured perceptual sensitivity to action-outcome regularity and manual dexterity in 200 children aged between 5 and 16 years. The results showed that perceptual sensitivity to action-outcome regularity was significantly lower in 5-6-year-old children than in 9-16-year-old children, and that it was significantly lower in children with low manual dexterity than in children with medium to high manual dexterity. Correlation analyses revealed significant correlations of age and perceptual sensitivity to action-outcome regularity, but no significant correlation of manual dexterity and perceptual sensitivity to action-outcome regularity, either overall or in any age band. The present study suggests that perceptual sensitivity to action-outcome regularity is immature at 5-6 years of age and that it may be impaired in 5-16-year-old children with poor manual dexterity.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have suggested that children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) rely heavily on vision to perform movements, which may contribute to their clumsy movements. However, few studies have objectively and quantitatively investigated the perceptual biases of children with DCD. METHODS: A visual-tactile temporal order judgment (TOJ) task was used to measure and compare the perceptual biases of 19 children with DCD and 19 age- and sex-matched typically developing children. The point of subjective equality, which demonstrates when "visual first" and "tactile first" judgment probabilities are equal (50%), obtained by analyzing the results of the visual-tactile TOJ task, was used as an indicator of perceptual biases. Further, variables (age and manual dexterity in all participants; motor function, autism spectrum disorder and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder traits, and depressive symptoms in children with DCD) associated with perceptual biases were examined with correlation analysis. RESULTS: Children with DCD had significantly stronger visual bias than typically developing children. Overall correlation analysis showed that increased visual bias was significantly correlated with poor manual dexterity. CONCLUSION: Children with DCD had a strong visual bias, which was associated with poor manual dexterity.