SENSORIMOTOR Flashcards
who highlighted the importance of sensorimotor skills?
Piaget
what is the first stage of development?
sensorimotor stage (0-2 years)
what is the second stage of development?
preoperational stage (2-6 years)
what is the third stage of development?
concrete operational (6-12 years)
what is the last stage of development?
formal operational
12 years-adult
what happens in the sensorimotor stage of development?
infant explores the world through direct sensory and motor contact
object permanence and separation anxiety develop during this stage
what happens in the preoperational stage of development?
child uses symbols to represent objects, but does not reason logically
child has the ability to pretend
is egocentric
what happens during the concrete operational stage of development?
child can think logically about concrete objects
can add and subtract
understands conversation
what happens in the formal operational stage of development?
adolescent can reason abstractly
can think in hypothetical terms
what is proprioception?
an awareness of where your body is in space in relation to other things in the environment
how do you perform sensorimotor operations? eg, reaching for a cup of tea
sensory inputs from the visual system and proprioceptive system provide essential info about the task
different sensory inputs are integrated into a unified state estimate- has task relevant information
estimate the current state of the world compared to the desired state- where do you want the object and how can the motor system perform this action (inverse model)
execute motor commands by the body
why may errors occur during sensorimotor operations?
planning failure
external pertubations
inherent noise within the motor system
why does the brain use a forward model?
address the problem that sensory feedback is too slow to allow efficient error correction in rapid hand movements
what does a forward model do?
takes a copy of the outgoing motor command, and generates a prediction of the expected sensory input
as the movement progresses, the actual sensory input is compared to the predicte input to allow rapid detection and correction of errors
what issue arises if we don’t have accurate sensory inputs about the body and world?
won’t be able to create an accurate state estimation
what issue arises if there are deficits in the forward model?
difficulty in making rapid corrections to movement
what issue arises if the inverse model is impaired?
takes longer reaction times before a movement is performed
are motor control systems fixed at birth?
no
we rapidly and continually learn new information and adapt to the environment
what are two possible disorders of sensorimotor development?
autism spectrum disorder
development coordination disorder/dysparxia
what are the difficulties experienced in autism spectrum disorder?
communication
socialisation
narrow circumscribed interests
repetitive behaviours
sensory hypersensitivity
what are the difficulties for developmental coordination disorder/dyspraxia?
selection/timing/spatial organisation of purposeful movement and coordination
social anxiety, social and communciation skills
why are disorders for sensorimotor development proposed?
both conditions encompass sensory and motor difficulties
who investigated associations between autism, autistic traits and dyspraxia?
Cassidy et al, 2016
why did Cassidy et al investigate the associations between autism, autistic traits and dyspraxia?
want to know if dyspraxia was more prevalent in autism than the general population
if so, this suggests autistic people experience sensorimotor difficulties
want to know if dyspraxia is associated with higher levels of self-reported autisic traits
how are self reported autistic traits measured?
by the autism spectrum quotient
what did Cassidy et al, 2016 find out about the relationship between dyspraxia, autism and autistic traits?
adults with autism are significantly more likely to have dyspraxia than the general population (6.9% compared to 0.8%)
adults with dyspraxia have significantly higher autistic traits and lower empathy than controls
sensorimotor skills are important for social skills and empathy
who made the first clinical descriptions of autism?
Kanner and Aspergerin in the 1940s
independently observed the general clumsiness in the movements of autistic people
what percentage of autistic people have definite motor difficulties?
80%
what did Flanagan et al, 2012 find out about motor difficulties in autism?
motor differences are present from early infancy
what did Chawarska et al 2007 find out about motor difficulties in autism?
motor delays tend to be reported by parents as an area of concern around 14 months old
what do motor difficulties impact?
imitation
speech sound production
emotion recognition
anxiety in response to social situations
what is now part of the current diagnostic criteria for autism?
sensory difficulties in autism
what can sensory difficulties in autism consist of?
sensory hypersensitivity= being very sensitive to your environment, find certain sounds/textures/tastes overwhelming
sensory hyposensitivity= being insensitive to hot/cold/pain
what is the prevalence of sensory difficulties in autistic people?
65-95%
what are examples of sensory difficulties in autistic people?
proprioreceptive impairment- lack ability to determine where the body is in space
increased rates of synaesthesia- where one sensory modality triggers another sensory modality
what challenges the idea of sensory difficulties in autism?
weak central coherence
autistic people have a bias in processing the local details over the global whole
this is argued to be superior visual processing
what is coherent motion?
observing a set of objects moving in the same direction
what is biological motion?
motion that comes from the action of a biological organism
how old are infants usually to distinguish biological from coherent motion?
as young as 3 months old
what type of motion do autistic children have difficulty perceiving?
biological motion
why is biological motion harder to process than coherent motion?
there is a greater range of information to consolidate as the light moves in different directions, compared to coherent motion, where the components generally move in one direction
what is sensory processing important for?
social development
what are repetitive behaviours (RRBs)?
insistence on sameness and repetitive motor movements
who investigated the relationship between sensory abnormalities and RRBs?
Wigham et al, 2015
what did Wigham et al, 2015 investigate and how?
pathways between sensory abnormalities and repetitive behaviours, and the role that anxiety and intolerance of uncertainty may have, in a sample of autistic children
gathered caregiver report data
what was Wigham et al, 2015 findings on the impact of sensory difficulties?
sensory under and over responsiveness were significantly associated with repetitive behaviours
relationships were significantly mediated by intolereance of uncertainty and anxiety
who investigated if sensorimotor difficulties are associated with the severity of autism spectrum conditions?
Hannant et al 2016
what did Hannant et al, 2016 find out about sensorimotor difficulties for autistic individuals?
autistic children have sensory and motor difficulties compared to those without autism
sensorimotor skills were most strongly associated with a number of autism symptoms across measures in both groups
sensorimotor skills (as opposed to sensory or motor alone) strongly predict social and communication skills regardless of autism diagnosis
what is eye movement an example of?
sensorimotor skill
what was found about eye movements for autistic people?
autistic people were less accurate when moving eyes to a new target
were slower to initiate an eye movement to the target
what is the rubber hand illusion?
perceived hand ownership can be transferred to a rubber hand after visual and tactile stimualtion
feel your own hand being stroked and seeing the rubber hand being stroked at the same time
who performed the rubber hand illusion on autistic and non autistic children?
Cascio et al, 2012
what happened when performing the rubber hand illusion on autistic and non autistic children?
autistic children were initially less susceptible to the illusion (possibly due to less empathy), but showed the effect of the illusion after 6 minutes
who investigated the effect of the rubber hand illusion in autism on adults?
Paton et al 2012
what was the procedure when performing the rubber hand illusion on adults?
did two conditions of the rubber hand illusion
traditional- participants hand was under the table, and the rubber hand was on top of the table
goggles condition- participant sees the virtual hand being stroked in the same position they are in space, no proprioreceptive discrepancy
would expect the illusion to be bigger in the goggles condition as no proprioreceptive discrepancy
what was the results for the rubber hand illusion in autistic adults?
autistic adults did experience the rubber hand illusion
similar likelihood for agreeing that they experienced the touch sensation as being felt on the rubber hand as non autistic controls
but did not experience a stronger rubber hand illusion in the goggles condition- do not have the same overall sensitivity
what difficulty in incorporating visual information did Dowd et al, 2012 find for autistic people?
presence of a visual distractor did not impact performance of autistic children compared to a neurotypical control
what difficulty in incorporating visual information did Gepner and Mestre, 2002 find for autistic people?
less able to correct movements from visual compared to proprioreceptive feedback
what difficulty in incorporating visual information did Gowen et al, 2008 find for autistic people?
difficulties with motor movements which require integrating visual cues or other sensory signals
what is mirror drawing?
need to adapt your motor movements in response to sensory feedback from a mirror when trying to trace a simple shape
who investigated mirror drawing in autistic individuals?
Salowitz et al, 2013
what did Salowitz et al find out about mirror drawing in autism?
for direct drawing- autistic and non autistic performed similarly
for mirror drawing- either performed much better or much worse
what does greater reliance on proprioreceptive feedback mean for autistic individuals?
increased difficulty in coordinating visual and motor movements
what is the biological basis of difficulties in sensorimotor processing?
cerebellum
what evidence suggests the cerebellum has a role in autistic sensorimotor processing?
abnormalities found in autistic people
decreased activation in cerebellum during motor tasks in autism
what did Schmitt et al, 2014 find out about the cerebellum?
eye movement accuracy has been connected to the error reducing function of the cerebellum
what did Marko et al, 2015 find out about the cerebellum?
cerebellum volume associated with difficulties incorporating visual cues in motor learning
what does the cerebellum contain?
pathways linking sensory and motor pathways in the brain
where does sensorimotor integration occur?
in the purkinje cells of the cerebellum
what do the purkinje cells of the cerebellum contain?
GABAergic inhibitory neurons
the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA and glutamate are released by these neurons
what does GABA stand for?
gamma aminobutyric acid
what is glutamate?
main excitatory neurotransmitter
what does glutamate do?
increases the firing of neurons, which increases sensory feedback
what does GABA do?
decreases the firing of neurons
therefore reducing and inhibiting sensory feedback
why do neurotypical individuals not experience hypo or hyper sensory feedback?
sufficient synthesis of GABA
and sufficient receptors for GABA
so no imbalance
why do autistic individuals experience hypo/hyper sensory feedback?
inefficient synthesis of GABA
limited receptors for GANA
so an imbalance
increased excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate is present= hyper sensory feedback
