Delayed Motor Learning in Autism

描述（由申请人提供）：适应机器人操纵臂在手臂上产生的扰动力的成年人，后来在机器人关闭时接触时会出现后遗症，但如果他们放开机器人，则会准确移动。这表明，当他们抓住机器人操纵杆时，他们所学到的如何做出目标导向的到达运动，产生运动附带力，并不能在没有机器人的情况下进行到达。越来越多的证据表明，我们在移动自己的手臂和移动外部物体时，会学习不同的预测策略，并在适当的自我/物体环境中使用这些策略，这是其中一个例子。我们最近表明，运动系统中这种情境特定的自我/客体区分是一种发展成就，在正常发育的儿童中大约7岁时出现。我们的研究还表明，情境特定的自我/对象运动适应的出现并没有一个绝对的成熟时间表，因为如果提供适当的经验，它可以加速。此外，我们从一项对高功能自闭症儿童（HFA）的研究中获得了令人兴奋的初步结果，我们发现他们和正常发育的儿童一样有能力学习补偿令人不安的机器人操纵（物体），但在学习不将其转移到自由接触（自我）环境方面有所延迟。我们的总体目标是在HFA儿童中证实这一初步发现，并测试一个关于如何在正常发育儿童和HFA儿童中加速自我/对象情境特定动态运动学习的假设。该项目的研究结果将有助于更好地了解正常发育儿童的情境特异性动态运动适应的发展，更清楚地了解自闭症的运动缺陷，并为增强HFA儿童的运动学习提供治疗方法，特别是学习与动态物体的互动。一个积极的结果也将为研究个体之间运动相互作用的典型和无序发展开辟未来的道路。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Adults who adapt to a perturbing force on their arm produced by a robotic manipulandum later show aftereffects when reaching with the robot deactivated but move accurately if they let go of the robot. This shows that what they learn about how to make goal-directed reaching movements when grasping a robotic manipulandum generating a movement-contingent force does not carry over to reaching without the robot. This is one example of a growing body of evidence indicating that we learn distinct predictive strategies for moving our own arm and for moving external objects, and we use these strategies in an appropriate self/object context. We have recently shown that this context-specific self/object distinction within the motor system is a developmental achievement that appears at about seven years of age in typically developing children. Our studies also show that there is not an absolute maturational time table for the emergence of context-specific self/object motor adaptation because it can be accelerated if appropriate experience is provided. In addition, we have exciting preliminary results from a study of children with high functioning autism (HFA) in which we are finding that they are as capable as typically developing children of learning to compensate for a perturbing robotic manipulandum (object) but are delayed in learning not to carry this over to the free reaching (self) context. Our overall aims are to confirm this preliminary finding in children with HFA and to test a hypothesis about how to accelerate self/object context-specific dynamic motor learning in typically developing children as well as in children with HFA. The outcomes of this project will provide a better understanding of the development of context-specific dynamic motor adaptation in typically developing children, a clearer understanding of motor deficits in autism, and a therapeutic method for enhancing motor learning in children with HFA - especially learning to interact with dynamic objects. A positive outcome will also open future avenues for investigating typical and disordered development of motor interactions between individuals. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: We will investigate children's capacity separately adjust their neuromotor control to account for their own rapidly changing bodies and for forces imposed by novel external objects. Our studies will include typically developing children, children with autism. The outcomes will be a better understanding of motor development in typically developing children, a clearer understanding of motor deficits in autism and a potential therapy for improving the development of dynamic motor interactions. Strong preliminary results indicate positive outcomes which will open a future avenue for investigating typical and disordered development of motor interactions between individuals.