Relationship Between Fundamental Motor Skills And Somatosensory Brain Responses In Adolescents

Previous studies examined the relationship between fundamental motor / movement skills (FMS) and cognitive processing in children. Somatosensory information is known to be one of the critical factors for improving motor skills. PURPOSE: The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between FMS and somatosensory brain responses in adolescents. METHODS: Thirty-six adolescents (16 boys, 20 girls) participated in this study. Anthropometric and physical fitness indexes were obtained, including: height, weight, 50-m sprint, standing long jump, grip strength, sit-ups, sit and reach, side steps, and ball throw. Somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) were recorded by delivering an electrical stimulus to the right median nerve at a rate of 3 Hz. Peak amplitudes were measured for N15, P18, and N30 at Fz, and for N18, P22, N27, P45, and N60 at C3’. Correlation analyses were conducted between data of physical fitness tests and amplitudes of SEPs for each component at Fz and C3’ electrodes. RESULTS: In adolescent boys, the amplitude of N30 at Fz showed positive correlations with the total FMS score (r = 0.594, p = 0.019), standing long jump performance (r = 0.537, p = 0.039), and sit-ups (r = 0.657, p = 0.008), and a negative correlation with the 50-m sprint time (r = -0.560, p = 0.024). These results indicate that boys with higher physical fitness scores tend to exhibit larger SEP peak amplitudes. Conversely, adolescent girls showed significant negative correlations between the standing long jump performance and amplitudes of N27 (r = -0.585, p = 0.007) at C3’, P45 (r = -0.499, p = 0.025) at C3’, and N60 (r = -0.491, p = 0.028) at C3’, indicating that girls with better long jump performances exhibited smaller SEP peak amplitudes. Our findings suggest that there are sex differences in the relationship between FMS and amplitudes of SEPs, and these characteristics appear during adolescence. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings partly support an association between FMS and somatosensory brain responses and show the existence of sex differences in this relationship.