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An Examination of Movement Kinematics in Young People with High-functioning Autism and Asperger’s Disorder: Further Evidence for a Motor Planning Deficit

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Abstract

This paper examines upper-body movement kinematics in individuals with high-functioning autism (HFA) and Asperger’s disorder (AD). In general, the results indicate that HFA is more consistently associated with impaired motoric preparation/initiation than AD. The data further suggest that this quantitative difference in motor impairment is not necessarily underpinned by greater executive dysfunction vulnerability in autism relative to AD. Quantitative motoric dissociation between autism and AD may have down-stream effects on later stages of movement resulting in qualitative differences between these disorder groups, e.g. “motor clumsiness” in AD versus “abnormal posturing” in autism. It will be important for future research to map the developmental trajectory of motor abnormalities in these disorder groups.

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Notes

  1. We acknowledge that Reaction Time is not a pure measure of ‘motor preparation’ as the involvement of attentional deployment and other cognitive factors can not easily be extracted from this measure. Notwithstanding, the separation of the early and late stage components of this kinematics task is a very close approximate to the preparation and execution aspects of movement.

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Acknowledgments

This research was funded through the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council, and Cure Autism Now’s Young Investigator fellowship program (NR), with resources provided in part by the Autism Coalition for Research and Education. MAB, NJR and JLB are supported by a Wellcome Trust (UK) International Biomedical Research Collaboration Grant. We greatly acknowledge the research assistance of Amanda Dudley.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Developmental Psychiatry and Psychology, Department of Psychological Medicine, Monash University, Monash Medical Centre, 246, Clayton Road, Clayton, Victoria, Australia

    Nicole J. Rinehart, Bruce J. Tonge & Avril V. Brereton

  2. Department of Psychology and the Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland

    Mark A. Bellgrove

  3. Neuropsychology Research Unit, Department of Psychology, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia

    Debra Howells-Rankin & John L. Bradshaw

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  1. Nicole J. Rinehart
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  2. Mark A. Bellgrove
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Correspondence to Nicole J. Rinehart.

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Rinehart, N.J., Bellgrove, M.A., Tonge, B.J. et al. An Examination of Movement Kinematics in Young People with High-functioning Autism and Asperger’s Disorder: Further Evidence for a Motor Planning Deficit. J Autism Dev Disord 36, 757–767 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-006-0118-x

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