Getting Off to a Shaky Start: Specificity in Planning and Feedforward Control During Sensorimotor Learning in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

Whilst autistic individuals develop new internal action models during sensorimotor learning, the acquired movements are executed less accurately and with greater variability. Such movement profiles are related to differences in sensorimotor integration and/or altered feedforward/feedback sensorimotor control. We investigated the processes underlying sensorimotor learning in autism by quantifying accuracy and variability, relative timing, and feedforward and feedback control. Although autistic individuals demonstrated significant sensorimotor learning across trials, which was facilitated by processing knowledge‐of‐results feedback, motor execution was less accurate than non‐autistic individuals. Kinematic analysis indicated that autistic individuals showed significantly greater spatial variability at peak acceleration, but comparable spatial variability at peak velocity. These kinematic markers suggest that autistic movement profiles are driven by specific differences in sensorimotor control processes (i.e., internal action models) associated with planning and regulating the forces required to execute the movement. The reduction of variability at peak velocity indicates intact early feedback‐based sensorimotor control in autism. Understanding how feedforward and feedback‐based control processes operate provides an opportunity to explore how these control processes influence the acquisition of socio‐motor actions in autism. Autism Res 2020, 13: 423–435. © 2019 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Lay Summary Autistic adults successfully learned a new movement skill by physically practising it, and using feedback about how well they had done to become more accurate. When looking at the movements in detail, autistic adults were more variable than non‐autistic adults when planning (e.g., how much force to use), and performing, the movement. These differences impact how autistic individuals learn different types of movement skills, which might influence how other behaviours (e.g., imitation) are acquired that support social interaction.

The multiple process model of goal-directed aiming/reaching: insights on limb control from various special populations

“…This occurs under conditions of full visual feedback and, to a lesser extent, when vision is eliminated upon movement initiation (Glazebrook et al 2009). These latter findings indicate that feedback-based corrective processes are operational in autistic individuals (Mosconi et al 2015) 5 , and we have shown recently that reductions in spatial variability at peak acceleration and peak velocity occur following a relatively short period of sensorimotor training (Foster et al 2020a(Foster et al , 2020b.…”

“…4 Given the evidence points toward specificity in autistic sensorimotor control processing, we suggest that kinematic examination of the underlying sensorimotor control and learning processes offers an important route for understanding part of the behavioral autism phenotype. Based on the feedforward and feedback processing systems associated with the multiple process model (Elliott et al , 2017, we have investigated how autistic internal action models operate as part of a feedforward system that controls action-understanding in social contexts, but also the organization, planning and control of goal-directed movements (Foster et al 2020a(Foster et al , 2020bGlazebrook et al 2006Nazarali et al 2009). For example, although higher-level motor planning processes (i.e., grasp height; see Ansuini et al 2018) are operational in autistic adults Nazarali et al 2009) and children (Ansuini et al 2018), both these groups (Nazarali et al 2009;Rinehart et al 2006) have difficulty generalizing internal action models to new, and unexpected movement goals.…”

“…When examining the underlying movement trajectory, kinematic data indicated the velocity and acceleration profiles to be elongated with lower peak magnitudes (Glazebrook et al 2006;Mari et al 2003). What appears to be most different about the underlying motor control properties of aiming movements is the greater trial-to-trial spatial variability early in the movement (i.e., at peak acceleration and peak velocity; Foster et al 2020b;Glazebrook et al 2006Glazebrook et al , 2009, which is indicative of low efficacy motor planning related to the specification of muscular forces during the impulse control phase of a movement. This increased spatial variability is particularly evident in high-index of difficulty movements (Glazebrook et al 2006), and is associated with greater variability in muscular force production (Mosconi et al 2015).…”

Atividades esportivas para indivíduos com transtorno do espectro autista

“…É uma condição clínica do neurodesenvolvimento a qual incide sob mais de 1% da população mundial (ANDERSON et al, 2020;JESUS et al, 2020). Marcada por diversas desordens no desenvolvimento psicomotor, o que interfere na competência de comunicação, no comportamento e na interação interpessoal do indivíduo (LEAL et al, 2017;CARVALHO;SOUSA, 2020;FOSTER et al, 2020).…”

人际互动中的“自我-他人”区分:多水平的探索

“…。近年来针对自闭症患者的 研究也开始关注其感知觉异常与高级认知功能之 间的关系 (Foster et al, 2019;Hayes et al, 2018;Robertson et al, 2017)…”