NCT05936372

Effects of Acute Exercise on Motor Learning and Brain Activity in Children With DCD

Study Protocol to Examine the Effects of Acute Exercise on Motor Learning and Brain Activity in Children With Developmental Coordination Disorder (ExLe-Brain-DCD)

• Status: Unknown
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 120 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Institut Nacional d'Educacio Fisica de Catalunya · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 90 Months – 126 Months
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of an acute intense physical exercise bout on the learning ability of children with typical motor development (TD) and children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD). The effects will be studied during the learning and in the short- (1 hour), medium- (24 hours), and long-terms (7 days) after the initial learning. Participants will be divided into 4 groups: children with typical development who will exercise (EX-TD), children with developmental coordination disorder who will exercise (EX-DCD), children with typical development who will not exercise (CON-TD), and children with developmental coordination disorder who will not exercise (CON-DCD). Participants will be enrolled for 4 different sessions: Session 1: First, participants will do a test to asses their cognitive ability and their height and weight will be measured. Then, participants will run a race test to assess their level of physical condition and to calculate high and moderate intensities of the exercise bout. The test will consist of running from one side to the other of a 20 m long track, while following the rhythm set by a sound. Session 2: at least 48 hours after the first one, the participants will do an exercise bout running from side to side of a 20 m long track alternating high and moderate intensities during 13 min. The members of the control groups (CON-TD and CON-DCD) will not perform this exercise and, instead, will remain at rest for a time equivalent to the exercise of the other groups. On the other hand, participants will perform a learning task involving hand-eye coordination, in which participants will control the movements of a circle on a computer screen using a joystick. The objective of this task will be to move the circle to target points that will appear on the screen with the maximum accuracy and speed possible. Participants will be asked to practice this task for approximately 8 min. Then, after a 1-hour rest period, the participants will be asked to perform the learning task again (only 3.5 min) to check the level of retention of the initial learning. A headcap will be adjusted on the head of the participants during the motor task performance to measure the activity of the brain through infrared light. Sessions 3 and 4: participants will complete two retention tests of the learning task (one in each session) 24 hours and 7 days after the second session, respectively. Participants will also wear the headcap for the brain activity measurements.

Conditions

• Developmental Coordination Disorder

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Acute intense aerobic exercise	The acute intense aerobic exercise bout (iE) will consist of a 13-minute 20-meter shuttle run. During this exercise bout two speeds, based on a percentage of the estimated maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max), will be combined: a fast-paced speed (fast: 85% of VO2max) and a slow-paced speed (slow: 60% VO2max). A total of 3 series of 3 min of the fast-paced speed will be carried interspersed with 2 series of 2 min of the slow-paced speed. Prior to the iE start, a warm-up protocol consisting of 2 min slow and 1 min fast will be done with the objective to familiarize participants with the iE speeds. A 5-minute rest period will be guaranteed before starting the iE. Transition time between iE and the rotational visuomotor adaptation task (rVMA) will be 4 min.

Timeline

• Start date: 2024-02-05
• Primary completion: 2025-06-01
• Completion: 2025-06-01
• First posted: 2023-07-07
• Last updated: 2024-02-09

Locations

3 sites across 1 country: Spain