Influence of functional brain asymmetry on coordination stability of children with intellectual disabilities

Introduction. Coordination stability is expressed in psychomotor control of motor activity by the human nervous system and in postural balance as a consequence of cortical-subcortical regulatory processes. With mental retardation, there is a violation of the integrative activity of the higher parts of the brain, a violation of the synthesis and analysis of afferent information of all mental and motor functions, and a violation of spatio-temporal interactions. It is relevant to determine the lateralization of psychomotor processes in people with intellectual disabilities as one of the predictors of understanding the relationship between motor asymmetries in the context of the mechanisms of initiation and further regulation of motor actions.

The objective was to determine the nature of lateralization of psychomotor processes in children with intellectual disabilities and to identify the degree of influence on coordination stability.

Methods and materials. The study involved 40 children aged 14–15 years, who were divided into 2 groups: 20 children with mild mental retardation and 20 normotypical children from a secondary school. Identification of the individual profile of functional interhemispheric asymmetry included passing 7 tests to determine the functional asymmetry of the arms and 6 tests to determine the functional asymmetry of the legs. Also 2 tests for coordination stability.

Results. In normotypical schoolchildren, right-sided lateralization predominates, which indicates the dominance of the left hemisphere. In schoolchildren with mental retardation, the coefficient of manual asymmetry revealed left-sided lateralization. These features are expressed, among other things, in motor manifestations; the regulation of motor actions in some cases is uncoordinated.

Conclusions. There is no specific algorithm for psychomotor control that can be observed in normotypical schoolchildren; motor skills, as well as bilateral body coordination, have reduced development.

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