The association between mental rotation capacity and motor impairment in children with obesity—an exploratory study

Abstract

BackgroundMotor impairments are relatively common in children with obesity and evidence suggests that these difficulties go beyond those expected based on the extra weight. This study aimed to investigate the mental rotation capacity in children with obesity, i.e., the ability to mentally view and rotate spatial information, which is a function of both visual-spatial and action representation processes. In particular, we examined whether children with obesity solved mental hand rotation tasks using an egocentric perspective (i.e., motor imagery) and if performance was related to their motor competence.MethodsFifty children (age range: 7–11 y) of which 19 with obesity and motor impairments (OB-) as assessed by the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (2nd version), 13 with obesity without motor impairments (OB+) and 18 control children with a healthy weight (HW) and normal motor competence, were submitted to a classic hand rotation task. Sitting at a desk the children were instructed to indicate the laterality of a picture of a hand displayed on a monitor as quickly and as accurately as possible.ResultsThe results indicate no differences in response time between groups (2,648 ms, 2,558 ms, 2,664 ms for OB-, OB+ and HW respectively). The OB- group, however, had significantly lower accuracy rates and inverse efficiency scores than the HW group (Accuracy: 72% vs. 89%; Inverse efficiency: 4,428 vs. 3,238). No difference was observed in accuracy and inverse efficiency between the OB+ and HW group (Accuracy: 86%; Inverse efficiency: 3,432). In all groups, slower and more error-prone responses were observed when the angle of rotation was larger and when the hand on display was incongruent with the posture of the participants, which indicates that judgments were made from an egocentric perspective and involved motor imagery.ConclusionAll children, including those with obesity, appear to engage in motor imagery. This notion needs to be investigated further in children with obesity and motor impairments, given their generally lower accuracy and decreased efficiency, which may indicate a reduced mental rotation capacity.

Effects of Physical Exercise Interventions on Spatial Orientation in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Scoping Review

“…According to Jansen et al (2011b), overweight and obese children showed lower motor performance and MR ability on MRtasks with larger rotation angles compared to normal weight children. These findings were extended by Deconinck et al (2019), who reported constraints in MR of obese children with additional motor impairments but not in obese children without motor impairment compared to normal weight children. Yet, the relationship between motor and cognitive development is not as clear cut in children with developmental disorders.…”

Age-Related Differences in Strategy in the Hand Mental Rotation Task

“…An IES obtained by dividing ΔRT by the rate of correct answers was used as an index of performance, and results were similar to those of our previous study that considered only ΔRT ( Nagashima et al, 2019 ). The IES was introduced in this study to address whether there is a trade-off between response speed (RT) and accuracy (correct response rate) ( Townsend and Ashby, 1978 ; Deconinck et al, 2019 ). As accuracy was not necessarily reduced by faster response as previously report ( Deconinck et al, 2019 ; Nagashima et al, 2019 ), we speculated that the trend in performance would become clearer using the IES.…”

“…The IES was introduced in this study to address whether there is a trade-off between response speed (RT) and accuracy (correct response rate) ( Townsend and Ashby, 1978 ; Deconinck et al, 2019 ). As accuracy was not necessarily reduced by faster response as previously report ( Deconinck et al, 2019 ; Nagashima et al, 2019 ), we speculated that the trend in performance would become clearer using the IES. Indeed, with further widening of the age range, the present study demonstrated that only middle-age and elderly individuals with lower performance skill used the MI strategy in the back-of-hand condition, while those of high-performance skill used the VI strategy similar to young participants.…”

“…In the present study, an inverse efficiency score (IES) ( Townsend and Ashby, 1978 ; Deconinck et al, 2019 ) was also calculated by further dividing the ΔRT by the rate of correct answers. The mean IES and standard deviation (SD) were calculated for each hand picture type within each age group.…”

Possible effects of obesity on motor development, executive functioning, and academic performance of schoolchildren from a neuropsychopedagogical perspective

“…Still, in this context of changes in morphophysiological aspects, studies developed by Brooks et al (2013), Pannacciulli et al (2006), Stopyra et al (2021), and Veit et al (2020 point out that the increase in BMI is associated with lower metabolic activity in the prefrontal cortex, the cingulate gyrus, the uncinated fasciculus, and a smaller volume of gray matter in the orbitofrontal region. Obese children perform lower on tasks that require executive functioning skills, math skills, and reading skills (Davis & Cooper, 2011;Deconinck, D'Hondt, Caeyenberghs, Lenoir, & Augustijn, 2019;Wang et al, 2016). Possibly these changes in executive functioning directly influence the academic performance of obese children since the prevalence of obese individuals with learning difficulties is twice as high as in individuals without learning difficulties (Dick & Clough, 2019;Salaun & Berthouze-Aranda, 2012).…”