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Postural control is influenced by cognition. In most studies, variability of motor output has been considered regardless of variability in patterns of joint coordination. Uncontrolled manifold framework has been applied to decompose the joint's variance in two components. The first component leaves position of the center of mass in anterior-posterior direction (CoMAP) unchanged (VUCM) while the second component is in charge of variations of CoM (VORT). In this study, 30 healthy young volunteers were recruited. The experimental protocol consisted of three random conditions: quiet standing on a narrow wooden block without a cognitive task (NB), quiet standing on a narrow wooden block with an easy cognitive task (NBE), and quiet standing on a narrow wooden block with a difficult cognitive task (NBD). Results showed that CoMAP sway in NB condition was higher than both NBE and NBD conditions (p =.001). VORT in NB condition was higher than NBE and NBD conditions (p =.003). VORT in NB condition was higher than NBE and NBD conditions (p =.003). VUCM was unchanged in all conditions (p = 1.00) and synergy index in NB condition was smaller than NBE and NBD conditions (p =.006). These results showed that postural synergies increased under dual-task conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The benefits of self-talk on motor performance are well documented. However, there is a gap in the literature on basic research into the mechanisms underlying the performance outcomes of self-talk. The purpose of this study was to determine the neuromuscular mechanisms underlying the effects of instructional and motivational self-talk. Fifteen young females participated in a within-subject counterbalanced design under control, instructional, and motivational self-talk conditions. Surface electromyography (sEMG) was recorded from active (the right biceps and triceps brachii) and passive (the frontalis and left biceps brachii) muscles during reproduction of the elbow flexion angle (90°) in the joint position sense test. The self-talk conditions led to a significantly lower EMG activity of the right biceps muscle, decreased co-contraction ratio of right biceps activity to right triceps activity, and reduced absolute error for the elbow joint position sense compared to the control condition. Also, EMG gradients in the passive muscles were observed in the self-talk conditions but not in the control condition. These findings suggest that attention and motivation are the mechanisms that justify the relationship between self-talk and performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motor learning is a relatively permanent change in motor performance. Also, one of the factors that can affect movement acquisition and movement patterns is pain and injury. The present study aims to investigate the effect of the induced local and remote pain during dart-throwing skill acquisition by examining motor skill accuracy and coordination variability. Three groups of 30 participants with a mean age of 18–25 were randomly assigned to local and remote pain or control groups. Capsaicin gel was applied to the pain groups for measuring the severity of pain using the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). The results revealed that pain had no impact on dart-throwing skill acquisition, and there was no significant difference (p = 0.732) among the three groups at three stages of retention test. The results also showed that there was a significant difference among the three groups in terms of variability in shoulder-elbow (p = 0.025) and elbow-wrist joints (p = 0.000) in the deceleration and dart-throwing phases. The Central Nervous System seems to make adjustments when the task is associated with pain during the acquisition phase. Also, the groups with or without pain have notably various strategies, so differently, to perceive motor skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the present study was to determine the effect of the game-based training program on fundamental movement skills (FMS) and working memory (WM) in male children with Down syndrome. Twenty-one children ages 9 to 11 years were assigned to either a Game- Based Training (GBT) or No-Training (NT) group. The GBT group participated in 12 sessions of game-based training, three sessions per week and 45 minutes per session whereas the NT group just performed normal daily activities. TGMD 2–Test was used to evaluate the motor development quality. The results showed that the GBT group performed better than the NT group in locomotor and manipulative skills. In the Corsi Block Task, although the mean scores of the GBT group were better than the NT group, it was not statistically significant. Our result revealed that after the game-based training program, participant’s scores improved in fundamental movement skills, but no significant improvement was observed in the working memory scores. Therefore, these findings support the positive effect of gamebased training on fundamental movement skills in children with Down syndrome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]