ORIGINAL ARTICLE   

Gazzetta Medica Italiana Archivio per le Scienze Mediche 2018 April;177(4):134-41

DOI: 10.23736/S0393-3660.17.03522-7

Copyright © 2017 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

lingua: Inglese

Mu rhythm in the implementation of bimanual coordination task among active versus inactive children with autism spectrum disorder

Ebrahim NOROUZI ¹ ✉, Fatemeh SADAT HOSSEINI ¹, Mehran SOLYMANI ², Sajad PARSAI ³

¹ Department of Human Motor Behavior, Faculty of Physical Education and Sports, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran; ² Department of Psychology, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Azerbaijan Shahid Madani University, Tabriz, Iran; ³ Department of Human Motor Behavior, Faculty of Physical Education and Sports, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran

BACKGROUND: Children with autism spectrum disorder have been sought to face the lack of motor control in their physical activities, however, some scientists stated that the reason for this weakness is dysfunction in the mirror neuron.
METHODS: In this causal-comparative study, the mu rhythm and bimanual coordination was examined in 10 healthy, 10 high-functioning autism (HFA) in-active and 10 high-functioning autism (HFA) active boys. Participants performed bimanual in-phase and anti-phase movements with their wrists at two conditions including: 1) observation, and 2) execution, while EEG was recorded. Two-way mixed ANOVA was used to analyze differences between both outcome measures of HFA in-active vs. HFA active.
RESULTS: Results indicated that HFA in-active and HFA active boys have higher mean of relative phase error (P≤0.01), moreover, have lower mean in mu suppression in both condition; observation (P=0.001) and execution (P=0.001). results showed that a significant effect of condition for all groups.
CONCLUSIONS: Findings confirm that HFA active boys performed bimanual coordination task more accurately. We have seen that when HFA boys perform bimanual coordination task, the mirror neuron activity has increased. These findings suggest that the special attention should be paid to motor activities in the treatment and the healing of HFA children.

KEY WORDS: Child - Electroencephalography - Autism spectrum disorder - Functional laterality - Motor skills disorders