Citation

Rubia K, Taylor A, Taylor E, Sergeant JA. Percept. Mot. Skills 1999; 89(3): 1237-1258.

Affiliation

MRC Child Psychiatry Unit, Institute of Psychiatry, Maudsley Hospital, London. k.rubia@iop.kcl.ac

Copyright

(Copyright © 1999, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

10710774

Abstract

We tested the hypothesis that children with hyperactive behaviour are impaired in the temporal organization of their motor output. The performance of 11 boys, scoring above a cut-off on standard scales of overactivity and inattention, was compared to that of controls in progressively more complex Motor-timing tasks. The tasks administered required self-paced and externally paced Sensorimotor Synchronization and Sensorimotor Anticipation. Deficits at a perceptual level were investigated with a Time-discrimination task. As hypothesized, we found that hyperactive children had no deficits in their perception of time but were impaired in timing their motor output. Hyperactive children were more inconsistent than controls in maintaining a freely chosen tapping rhythm, in synchronizing and in anticipating their motor response to external visual stimulation.

Language: en