Developmental Coordination Disorder: A brain imaging study v1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Brain white matter correlates of developmental coordination disorder and associated impairments
IRAS ID
138275
Contact name
Frederique Liegeois
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
UCL Institute of Child Health
Research summary
Children have a great capacity to learn new skills, such as those involved in fine movements of the hand (e.g. lacing up shoes, handwriting) and speech. Mastering those skills and learning new ones is crucial for them to go on to live independently and integrate socially. However, young people with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) particularly struggle with learning coordinated movements, and may in addition have speech and language as well as attention difficulties. We think this could be due to atypical development of connections (“wiring”) in the brain. Recently developed brain scans now allow us to map connections important for skilled movements, language, and attention, yet no research has examined whether people with DCD have abnormalities in these connections. Here we propose to compare the brain scans of young people with DCD (aged 9-10 years) to those of age-matched typical peers. This project will (i) help identify the neural correlates of DCD (ii) help us understand why DCD can occur alongside language and attention problems.
REC name
London - Fulham Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/LO/0059
Date of REC Opinion
3 Mar 2014
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion