TY - JOUR
T1 - Adolescent development of motor imagery in a visually guided pointing task
AU - Choudhury, Suparna
AU - Charman, Tony
AU - Bird, Victoria
AU - Blakermore, Sarah-Jayne
PY - 2007/12
Y1 - 2007/12
N2 - The development of action representation during adolescence was investigated using a visually guided pointing motor task (VGPT) to test motor imagery. Forty adolescents (24 males; mean age 13.1 years) and 33 adults (15 males; mean age 27.5 years) were instructed to both execute and imagine hand movements from a starting point to a target of varying size. Reaction time (RT) was measured for both Execution (E) and Imagery (1) conditions. There is typically a close association between time taken to execute and image actions in adults because action execution and action simulation rely on overlapping neural circuitry. Further, representations of actions are governed by the same speed-accuracy trade-off as real actions, as expressed by Fitts' Law. In the current study, performance on the VGPT in both adolescents and adults conformed to Fitts' Law in E and I conditions. However, the strength of association between E and I significantly increased with age, reflecting a refinement in action representation between adolescence and adulthood. (c) 2007 Published by Elsevier Inc.
AB - The development of action representation during adolescence was investigated using a visually guided pointing motor task (VGPT) to test motor imagery. Forty adolescents (24 males; mean age 13.1 years) and 33 adults (15 males; mean age 27.5 years) were instructed to both execute and imagine hand movements from a starting point to a target of varying size. Reaction time (RT) was measured for both Execution (E) and Imagery (1) conditions. There is typically a close association between time taken to execute and image actions in adults because action execution and action simulation rely on overlapping neural circuitry. Further, representations of actions are governed by the same speed-accuracy trade-off as real actions, as expressed by Fitts' Law. In the current study, performance on the VGPT in both adolescents and adults conformed to Fitts' Law in E and I conditions. However, the strength of association between E and I significantly increased with age, reflecting a refinement in action representation between adolescence and adulthood. (c) 2007 Published by Elsevier Inc.
U2 - 10.1016/j.concog.2006.11.001
DO - 10.1016/j.concog.2006.11.001
M3 - Article
SN - 1053-8100
VL - 16
SP - 886
EP - 896
JO - Consciousness and Cognition
JF - Consciousness and Cognition
IS - 4
ER -