SENSORIMOTOR Flashcards

1
Q

who highlighted the importance of sensorimotor skills?

A

Piaget

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2
Q

what is the first stage of development?

A

sensorimotor stage (0-2 years)

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3
Q

what is the second stage of development?

A

preoperational stage (2-6 years)

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4
Q

what is the third stage of development?

A

concrete operational (6-12 years)

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5
Q

what is the last stage of development?

A

formal operational
12 years-adult

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6
Q

what happens in the sensorimotor stage of development?

A

infant explores the world through direct sensory and motor contact

object permanence and separation anxiety develop during this stage

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7
Q

what happens in the preoperational stage of development?

A

child uses symbols to represent objects, but does not reason logically

child has the ability to pretend

is egocentric

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8
Q

what happens during the concrete operational stage of development?

A

child can think logically about concrete objects

can add and subtract

understands conversation

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9
Q

what happens in the formal operational stage of development?

A

adolescent can reason abstractly

can think in hypothetical terms

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10
Q

what is proprioception?

A

an awareness of where your body is in space in relation to other things in the environment

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11
Q

how do you perform sensorimotor operations? eg, reaching for a cup of tea

A

sensory inputs from the visual system and proprioceptive system provide essential info about the task

different sensory inputs are integrated into a unified state estimate- has task relevant information

estimate the current state of the world compared to the desired state- where do you want the object and how can the motor system perform this action (inverse model)

execute motor commands by the body

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12
Q

why may errors occur during sensorimotor operations?

A

planning failure

external pertubations

inherent noise within the motor system

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13
Q

why does the brain use a forward model?

A

address the problem that sensory feedback is too slow to allow efficient error correction in rapid hand movements

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14
Q

what does a forward model do?

A

takes a copy of the outgoing motor command, and generates a prediction of the expected sensory input

as the movement progresses, the actual sensory input is compared to the predicte input to allow rapid detection and correction of errors

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15
Q

what issue arises if we don’t have accurate sensory inputs about the body and world?

A

won’t be able to create an accurate state estimation

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16
Q

what issue arises if there are deficits in the forward model?

A

difficulty in making rapid corrections to movement

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17
Q

what issue arises if the inverse model is impaired?

A

takes longer reaction times before a movement is performed

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18
Q

are motor control systems fixed at birth?

A

no
we rapidly and continually learn new information and adapt to the environment

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19
Q

what are two possible disorders of sensorimotor development?

A

autism spectrum disorder

development coordination disorder/dysparxia

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20
Q

what are the difficulties experienced in autism spectrum disorder?

A

communication

socialisation

narrow circumscribed interests

repetitive behaviours

sensory hypersensitivity

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21
Q

what are the difficulties for developmental coordination disorder/dyspraxia?

A

selection/timing/spatial organisation of purposeful movement and coordination

social anxiety, social and communciation skills

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22
Q

why are disorders for sensorimotor development proposed?

A

both conditions encompass sensory and motor difficulties

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23
Q

who investigated associations between autism, autistic traits and dyspraxia?

A

Cassidy et al, 2016

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24
Q

why did Cassidy et al investigate the associations between autism, autistic traits and dyspraxia?

A

want to know if dyspraxia was more prevalent in autism than the general population

if so, this suggests autistic people experience sensorimotor difficulties

want to know if dyspraxia is associated with higher levels of self-reported autisic traits

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25
Q

how are self reported autistic traits measured?

A

by the autism spectrum quotient

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26
Q

what did Cassidy et al, 2016 find out about the relationship between dyspraxia, autism and autistic traits?

A

adults with autism are significantly more likely to have dyspraxia than the general population (6.9% compared to 0.8%)

adults with dyspraxia have significantly higher autistic traits and lower empathy than controls

sensorimotor skills are important for social skills and empathy

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27
Q

who made the first clinical descriptions of autism?

A

Kanner and Aspergerin in the 1940s

independently observed the general clumsiness in the movements of autistic people

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28
Q

what percentage of autistic people have definite motor difficulties?

A

80%

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29
Q

what did Flanagan et al, 2012 find out about motor difficulties in autism?

A

motor differences are present from early infancy

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30
Q

what did Chawarska et al 2007 find out about motor difficulties in autism?

A

motor delays tend to be reported by parents as an area of concern around 14 months old

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31
Q

what do motor difficulties impact?

A

imitation

speech sound production

emotion recognition

anxiety in response to social situations

32
Q

what is now part of the current diagnostic criteria for autism?

A

sensory difficulties in autism

33
Q

what can sensory difficulties in autism consist of?

A

sensory hypersensitivity= being very sensitive to your environment, find certain sounds/textures/tastes overwhelming

sensory hyposensitivity= being insensitive to hot/cold/pain

34
Q

what is the prevalence of sensory difficulties in autistic people?

A

65-95%

35
Q

what are examples of sensory difficulties in autistic people?

A

proprioreceptive impairment- lack ability to determine where the body is in space

increased rates of synaesthesia- where one sensory modality triggers another sensory modality

36
Q

what challenges the idea of sensory difficulties in autism?

A

weak central coherence

autistic people have a bias in processing the local details over the global whole

this is argued to be superior visual processing

37
Q

what is coherent motion?

A

observing a set of objects moving in the same direction

38
Q

what is biological motion?

A

motion that comes from the action of a biological organism

39
Q

how old are infants usually to distinguish biological from coherent motion?

A

as young as 3 months old

40
Q

what type of motion do autistic children have difficulty perceiving?

A

biological motion

41
Q

why is biological motion harder to process than coherent motion?

A

there is a greater range of information to consolidate as the light moves in different directions, compared to coherent motion, where the components generally move in one direction

42
Q

what is sensory processing important for?

A

social development

43
Q

what are repetitive behaviours (RRBs)?

A

insistence on sameness and repetitive motor movements

44
Q

who investigated the relationship between sensory abnormalities and RRBs?

A

Wigham et al, 2015

45
Q

what did Wigham et al, 2015 investigate and how?

A

pathways between sensory abnormalities and repetitive behaviours, and the role that anxiety and intolerance of uncertainty may have, in a sample of autistic children

gathered caregiver report data

46
Q

what was Wigham et al, 2015 findings on the impact of sensory difficulties?

A

sensory under and over responsiveness were significantly associated with repetitive behaviours

relationships were significantly mediated by intolereance of uncertainty and anxiety

47
Q

who investigated if sensorimotor difficulties are associated with the severity of autism spectrum conditions?

A

Hannant et al 2016

48
Q

what did Hannant et al, 2016 find out about sensorimotor difficulties for autistic individuals?

A

autistic children have sensory and motor difficulties compared to those without autism

sensorimotor skills were most strongly associated with a number of autism symptoms across measures in both groups

sensorimotor skills (as opposed to sensory or motor alone) strongly predict social and communication skills regardless of autism diagnosis

49
Q

what is eye movement an example of?

A

sensorimotor skill

50
Q

what was found about eye movements for autistic people?

A

autistic people were less accurate when moving eyes to a new target

were slower to initiate an eye movement to the target

51
Q

what is the rubber hand illusion?

A

perceived hand ownership can be transferred to a rubber hand after visual and tactile stimualtion

feel your own hand being stroked and seeing the rubber hand being stroked at the same time

52
Q

who performed the rubber hand illusion on autistic and non autistic children?

A

Cascio et al, 2012

53
Q

what happened when performing the rubber hand illusion on autistic and non autistic children?

A

autistic children were initially less susceptible to the illusion (possibly due to less empathy), but showed the effect of the illusion after 6 minutes

54
Q

who investigated the effect of the rubber hand illusion in autism on adults?

A

Paton et al 2012

55
Q

what was the procedure when performing the rubber hand illusion on adults?

A

did two conditions of the rubber hand illusion

traditional- participants hand was under the table, and the rubber hand was on top of the table
goggles condition- participant sees the virtual hand being stroked in the same position they are in space, no proprioreceptive discrepancy

would expect the illusion to be bigger in the goggles condition as no proprioreceptive discrepancy

56
Q

what was the results for the rubber hand illusion in autistic adults?

A

autistic adults did experience the rubber hand illusion

similar likelihood for agreeing that they experienced the touch sensation as being felt on the rubber hand as non autistic controls

but did not experience a stronger rubber hand illusion in the goggles condition- do not have the same overall sensitivity

57
Q

what difficulty in incorporating visual information did Dowd et al, 2012 find for autistic people?

A

presence of a visual distractor did not impact performance of autistic children compared to a neurotypical control

58
Q

what difficulty in incorporating visual information did Gepner and Mestre, 2002 find for autistic people?

A

less able to correct movements from visual compared to proprioreceptive feedback

59
Q

what difficulty in incorporating visual information did Gowen et al, 2008 find for autistic people?

A

difficulties with motor movements which require integrating visual cues or other sensory signals

60
Q

what is mirror drawing?

A

need to adapt your motor movements in response to sensory feedback from a mirror when trying to trace a simple shape

61
Q

who investigated mirror drawing in autistic individuals?

A

Salowitz et al, 2013

62
Q

what did Salowitz et al find out about mirror drawing in autism?

A

for direct drawing- autistic and non autistic performed similarly

for mirror drawing- either performed much better or much worse

63
Q

what does greater reliance on proprioreceptive feedback mean for autistic individuals?

A

increased difficulty in coordinating visual and motor movements

64
Q

what is the biological basis of difficulties in sensorimotor processing?

A

cerebellum

65
Q

what evidence suggests the cerebellum has a role in autistic sensorimotor processing?

A

abnormalities found in autistic people

decreased activation in cerebellum during motor tasks in autism

66
Q

what did Schmitt et al, 2014 find out about the cerebellum?

A

eye movement accuracy has been connected to the error reducing function of the cerebellum

67
Q

what did Marko et al, 2015 find out about the cerebellum?

A

cerebellum volume associated with difficulties incorporating visual cues in motor learning

68
Q

what does the cerebellum contain?

A

pathways linking sensory and motor pathways in the brain

69
Q

where does sensorimotor integration occur?

A

in the purkinje cells of the cerebellum

70
Q

what do the purkinje cells of the cerebellum contain?

A

GABAergic inhibitory neurons

the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA and glutamate are released by these neurons

71
Q

what does GABA stand for?

A

gamma aminobutyric acid

72
Q

what is glutamate?

A

main excitatory neurotransmitter

73
Q

what does glutamate do?

A

increases the firing of neurons, which increases sensory feedback

74
Q

what does GABA do?

A

decreases the firing of neurons
therefore reducing and inhibiting sensory feedback

75
Q

why do neurotypical individuals not experience hypo or hyper sensory feedback?

A

sufficient synthesis of GABA
and sufficient receptors for GABA
so no imbalance

76
Q

why do autistic individuals experience hypo/hyper sensory feedback?

A

inefficient synthesis of GABA
limited receptors for GANA
so an imbalance
increased excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate is present= hyper sensory feedback