scholarly journals Imagine That! Mental Training for Children With Developmental Coordination Disorder

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew W. Scott ◽  
Greg Wood ◽  
Paul S. Holmes ◽  
Ben Marshall ◽  
Jacqueline Williams ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Motor Imagery ◽  
Developmental Coordination Disorder ◽  
Action Observation ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Mental Training ◽  
Brain Areas ◽  
And Control ◽  
Coordination Disorder ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Health And Well Being

Movement is important for children’s health and well-being. Most children find it easy to learn to move but children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) find it hard. It can be tricky for them to plan and control their movements. DCD affects 1 in every 20 children. It makes important tasks difficult, like getting dressed or playing games and sports. Scientists have found that children with DCD have different activity in some brain areas compared to other children. Mental training can increase activity in these areas of the brain. One type of mental training is motor imagery, which involves imagining doing movements. Another type of mental training is action observation, which involves carefully watching how people make certain movements. These techniques can help children with DCD get better at moving. This means that doing mental training might help make life easier for children with DCD.

scholarly journals Differences in movement-related cortical activation patterns underlying motor performance in children with and without developmental coordination disorder

2013 ◽  
Vol 109 (12) ◽  
pp. 3041-3050 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa M. Pangelinan ◽  
Bradley D. Hatfield ◽  
Jane E. Clark
Keyword(s):  
Motor Performance ◽  
Developmental Coordination Disorder ◽  
Developmental Trajectory ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Brain Areas ◽  
Planning And Control ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Motor Cortical ◽  
And Control ◽  
Coordination Disorder

Behavioral deficits in visuomotor planning and control exhibited by children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) have been extensively reported. Although these functional impairments are thought to result from “atypical brain development,” very few studies to date have identified potential neurological mechanisms. To address this knowledge gap, electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded from 6- to 12-yr-old children with and without DCD ( n = 14 and 20, respectively) during the performance of a visuomotor drawing task. With respect to motor performance, typically developing (TD) children exhibited age-related improvements in key aspects of motor planning and control. Although some children with DCD performed outside this TD landscape (i.e., age-related changes within the TD group), the group developmental trajectory of the children with DCD was similar to that of the TD children. Despite overall similarities in performance, engagement of cortical resources in the children with DCD was markedly different from that in their TD counterparts. While the patterns of activation are stable in TD children across the age range, the young children with DCD exhibited less engagement of motor cortical brain areas and the older children with DCD exhibited greater engagement of motor cortical brain areas than their TD peers. These results suggest that older children with DCD may employ a compensatory strategy in which increased engagement of relevant motor resources allows these children to perform comparably to their TD peers. Moreover, the magnitude of activation was related to several kinematic measures, particularly in children with DCD, suggesting that greater engagement in motor resources may underlie better behavioral performance.

scholarly journals Motor imagery during action observation enhances automatic imitation in children with and without developmental coordination disorder

2019 ◽  
Vol 183 ◽  
pp. 242-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew William Scott ◽  
Jonathan Reyes Emerson ◽  
John Dixon ◽  
Martin Andrew Tayler ◽  
Daniel Lloyd Eaves
Keyword(s):  
Motor Imagery ◽  
Developmental Coordination Disorder ◽  
Action Observation ◽  
Automatic Imitation ◽  
Coordination Disorder

scholarly journals Motor imagery during action observation enhances imitation of everyday rhythmical actions in children with and without developmental coordination disorder

2020 ◽  
Vol 71 ◽  
pp. 102620 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew William Scott ◽  
Jonathan Reyes Emerson ◽  
John Dixon ◽  
Martin Andrew Tayler ◽  
Daniel Lloyd Eaves
Keyword(s):  
Motor Imagery ◽  
Developmental Coordination Disorder ◽  
Action Observation ◽  
Coordination Disorder

A positive psychology study and intervention on the well-being of French PhD students in biology

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriel Marais ◽  
Rebecca Shankland ◽  
Pascale Haag ◽  
Robin Fiault ◽  
Bridget Juniper
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Large Fraction ◽  
Reference Sample ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Attrition Rates ◽  
Human Costs ◽  
The Uk ◽  
And Control ◽  
Health And Well Being

In France, little data are available on mental health and well-being in academia, and nothing has been published about PhD students. From studies abroad, we know that doing a PhD is a difficult experience resulting in high attrition rates with significant financial and human costs. Here we focused on PhD students in biology at university Lyon 1. A first study aimed at measuring the mental health and well-being of PhD students using several generalist and PhD-specific tools. Our results on 136 participants showed that a large fraction of the PhD students experience abnormal levels of stress, depression and anxiety, and their mean well-being score is significantly lower than that of a British reference sample. French PhD student well-being is specifically affected by career uncertainty, perceived lack of progress in the PhD and perceived lack of competence, which points towards possible cultural differences of experiencing a PhD in France and the UK. In a second study, we carried out a positive psychology intervention. Comparing the scores of the test and control groups showed a clear effect of the intervention on reducing anxiety. We discuss our results and the possible future steps to improve French PhD students’ well-being.

Cognitively Based Compassion Training

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer S. Mascaro ◽  
Lobsang Tenzin Negi ◽  
Charles L. Raison
Keyword(s):  
Immune Function ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Stress Physiology ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Beneficial Impact ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Health And Well Being ◽  
Initial Research

Recent research has examined the beneficial impact of kindness-based meditation practices, including cognitively-based compassion training (CBCT). Here we provide a theoretical and practical account of CBCT and review the emerging evidence that it affects the brain and body in ways that are relevant for health. Initial research demonstrated that CBCT alters immune function and stress physiology, and augments empathy as well as the neural activity supporting it. More recent studies indicate that CBCT is differentially effective, depending on the population that practices. We suggest directions for future research to best examine the apparently complex effects of CBCT on health and well-being.

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