PERCEPTUAL AND MOTOR BEHAVIOR IN DOWN SYNDROME

除了一般的智力障碍外， 唐氏综合症表现出一些特定的信息处理 问题，其中一些与大脑的非典型模式有关 组织在这些人。例如，与其他 智力年龄相近的儿童和成人、唐氏综合症患者 难以进行连续的肢体和口腔运动， 口头指示的基础。在这项研究计划中所采取的立场是， 这个问题是由于 负责言语感知的大脑区域和负责 组织运动。 该研究计划有四个相互关联的 目标. 一是建立脑神经行为指数 唐氏综合症患者的组织，将可靠地预测 言语运动表现的个体差异。 该议定书 包括在两耳分离后进行快速的肢体和口腔运动， 口头刺激的呈现，将使用最新的 脑成像技术 第二个目标是使用大脑- 成像技术扩展了对大脑组织的理解 唐氏综合症患者的视觉空间功能，视觉- 语言功能以及视觉和听觉注意过程。的 第三个目标涉及研究，以扩大研究顺序口服 从肢体运动到涉及效应器协调的运动 和环境中的信息。 最终 目的是进行实验，以确定是否言语运动 唐氏综合征儿童和成人的表现调查结果 推广到感知运动技能的获得。有趣的是， 或不是大脑的神经行为和神经生理指标 与前两个研究目标相关的组织预测 不同教学与康复中技能习得 contexts.

As well as general intellectual difficulties, children and adults with Down syndrome exhibit a number of specific information processing problems, some of which are associated with an atypical pattern of brain organization in these individuals. For example, compared to other children and adults of a similar mental age, persons with Down syndrome have difficulty performing sequential limb and oral movements on the basis of verbal direction. The position taken in this research program is that this problem is due to the functional dissociation of the cerebral areas responsible for speech perception and those responsible for movement organization. This research program has four interrelated objectives. The first is to develop a neurobehavioral index of cerebral organization in persons with Down syndrome that will reliably predict individual differences in verbal-motor performance. The protocol, which involves performing rapid limb and oral movements following the dichotic presentation of verbal stimuli, will be validated using the latest in brain-imaging technology. The second objective is to use the brain- imaging technology to extend the understanding of cerebral organization in persons with Down syndrome to visual-spatial function, visual- language function and visual and auditory attentional processes. The third objective involves studies to extend research on sequential oral and limb movements to movements involving the coordination of effectors with each other and with information from the environment. The final objective involves experiments conducted to determine if verbal-motor performance findings involving children and adults with Down syndrome generalize to perceptual-motor skill acquisition. Of interest is whether or not the neurobehavioral and neurophysiological indices of cerebral organization associated with the first two research objectives predict skill acquisition in different instructional and rehabilitation contexts.