學院

醫學院

系所

職能治療學系

題名

Relationship between executive functions and motor performance in typically developing children: A literature review

作者

Chen, Y-W., Lin, K-C., Hsieh, Y-W., & Wang, T-N.*

期刊名稱

Journal of Taiwan Occupational Therapy Research and Practice

發表日期

2013

著作性質

原著

語文

中文

關鍵字

Inhibition, Working memory, Shifting, Motor performance, Children

摘要

Objective: Executive function and motor performance have been studied and discussed separately in previous studies. However, there is growing consensus that these two concepts may be fundamentally interrelated. from developmental perspective, both executive function and motor development display equally protracted developmental timetable. Functional neuroimaging studies consistently find that when a cognitive task increases activation in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex it also increases activation in the contralateral cerebellum. Thus, the purpose of this reviewing article is to investigate and summarize the relationship between executive function and motor performance in typically developing children. Methods: A computerized search was conducted in Medline and PubMed to identify relevant studies. The selection criterion for the reviewing articles were studies that (1)investigated the relationship between executive function and motor performance, (2)recruited participants from typically developing children, (3)be written in English, and (4)published from 2002 to 2012. Finally, ten articles were included for reviewing. Results: The results of this review suggest that executive function is significantly related to several specific motor performances, particularly to those required highly motor planning skills such as path drawing, manual dexterity or ball manipulation. On the contrary, no significant relationship was found between the basic motor skills and executive function. In addition, the results also showed that the relationship between executive function and motor performance were higher in children with poorer executive function/motor skills than those who demonstrate average executive function/motor skills. Conclusion: Based on our reviewing, the relationship between executive function and motor performance was significant especially in performing complex motor tasks. In addition, no gold standard definition and instruments were used for measuring the executive function in these studies. Further research with more appropriate definition and assessments in executive function is suggested to validate the mechanism and the relationship between executive function and motor performance.