Functional equivalence hypothesis and motor-cognitive model both posit that motor imagery performance involves inhibition of overt physical movement and thus engages control processes. As motor inhibition in internal motor imagery has been fairly well studied in adults, the present study aimed to investigate the correlation between internal motor imagery and motor inhibition in children. A total of 73 children (7-year-olds: 23, 9-year-olds: 27, and 11-year-olds: 23) participated the study. Motor inhibition was assessed with a stop-signal task, and motor imagery abilities were measured with a hand laterality judgment task and an alphanumeric rotation task, respectively. Overall, for all age groups, response time in both motor imagery tasks increased with rotation angles. Moreover, all children’s response times in both tasks decreased with age, their accuracy increased with age, and their motor inhibition efficiency increased with age. We found a significant difference between 7-year-olds and 9-year-olds in the hand laterality judgment task, suggesting that the involvement of motor inhibition in internal motor imagery might change with age. Our results reveal the underlying processes of internal motor imagery development, and furthermore, provide practical implications for movement rehabilitation of children.

中文翻译：

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学龄儿童内部运动意象与运动抑制之间的关系：一项横断面研究

功能等效假说和运动认知模型都假定运动意象表现涉及抑制明显的身体运动，从而参与控制过程。由于内部运动意象中的运动抑制已在成人中得到相当好的研究，本研究旨在调查内部运动意象与儿童运动抑制之间的相关性。共有 73 名儿童（7 岁：23、9 岁：27 和 11 岁：23）参加了这项研究。运动抑制通过停止信号任务进行评估，运动想象能力分别通过手侧向判断任务和字母数字旋转任务进行测量。总体而言，对于所有年龄组，两种运动想象任务的响应时间都随着旋转角度的增加而增加。此外，所有儿童在这两项任务中的反应时间都随着年龄的增长而减少，它们的准确性随着年龄的增长而增加，并且它们的运动抑制效率随着年龄的增长而增加。我们发现 7 岁和 9 岁儿童在手侧向性判断任务中存在显着差异，这表明运动抑制在内部运动意象中的参与可能随年龄而变化。我们的结果揭示了内部运动意象发展的潜在过程，此外，为儿童的运动康复提供了实际意义。