Prefrontal oxygenation during executive tasks in children with developmental coordination disorder
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Abstract
We examined activation of the prefrontal cortex in children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) (ages 8 to 12 years) using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Seven children with DCD and 7 typically developing children were tested for blood oxygenation levels in the prefrontal cortex during completion of the Stroop, Wisconsin Card Sort Tasks and Go/Nogo tasks. The hypothesis that the groups would perform with similar accuracy, but show differential brain activation was supported in the Stroop and Wisconsin Card Sort, but not the Go/No Go task. The typically developing children showed trends toward increased right hemisphere activation during the Stroop and Go/ Nogo tasks and significant right hemisphere activation during the simple reaction time task, while DCD activation exhibited similar activation between hemispheres. This suggests that children with DCD use different neural circuitry to accomplish tasks regardless of the type of processing necessary.