Adolescent development of motor imagery in a visually guided pointing task

Suparna Choudhury, Tony Charman, Victoria Bird, Sarah-Jayne Blakermore

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

62 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

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.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)886-896
Number of pages11
JournalConsciousness and Cognition
Volume16
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2007

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