Presenter Information

Megan Sparks, Utah State University

Class

Article

College

College of Science

Department

Biology Department

Faculty Mentor

Breanna Studenka

Presentation Type

Poster Presentation

Abstract

In the Sensory Motor and Behavior Lab, we are developing a new measure of motor planning span. Motor planning is defined as preparing for movement before any movement occurs. This is a critical process that allows us to do any and all physical activity. The ability to do motor planning can be impacted after a traumatic brain injury or in the case of having a neurological disorder such as Autism Spectrum Disorder. Many studies have looked at motor planning span with discrete starting and ending positions, but our study will be analyzing continuous movements. We will collect reaction time, movement time, and the kinematics (e.g., elbow angle) at the starting and ending positions of a movement planning task. We will give subjects tasks to complete and record the time it took and how each subject moved to reach the end goal. We will analyze the differences in our data between subjects and look for patterns. We predict that we will observe differences in the kinematics between planning spans 1, 2, and 3. The overall goal of this study is to deepen our understanding of continuous motor planning using kinematics.

Location

Logan, UT

Start Date

4-12-2023 12:30 PM

End Date

4-12-2023 1:30 PM

Included in

Biology Commons

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Apr 12th, 12:30 PM Apr 12th, 1:30 PM

The Kinematics of Motor Planning Span

Logan, UT

In the Sensory Motor and Behavior Lab, we are developing a new measure of motor planning span. Motor planning is defined as preparing for movement before any movement occurs. This is a critical process that allows us to do any and all physical activity. The ability to do motor planning can be impacted after a traumatic brain injury or in the case of having a neurological disorder such as Autism Spectrum Disorder. Many studies have looked at motor planning span with discrete starting and ending positions, but our study will be analyzing continuous movements. We will collect reaction time, movement time, and the kinematics (e.g., elbow angle) at the starting and ending positions of a movement planning task. We will give subjects tasks to complete and record the time it took and how each subject moved to reach the end goal. We will analyze the differences in our data between subjects and look for patterns. We predict that we will observe differences in the kinematics between planning spans 1, 2, and 3. The overall goal of this study is to deepen our understanding of continuous motor planning using kinematics.