Short report presenting preliminary evidence of impaired corticomuscular coherence in an individual with Developmental Coordination Disorder

Background: It has been suggested that developmental coordination disorder (DCD) could be caused by a ‘dysconnection’ in brain and skeletal muscle communication. To date no previous work has examined the integrity of this neuromuscular process in individuals with DCD. Aims: To provide the first examination of functional connectivity of the brain and muscle in an individual with DCD using corticomuscular coherence (CMC).Methods and Procedures: An individual with DCD and a typically developing (TD) participant completed a series of sustained 5-second voluntary isometric hand contractions (15 ± 5% MVC) on a handheld dynamometer under both single and dual task (i.e., counting backwards) conditions. EEG, EMG and force data were collected.Outcomes and Results: The participant with DCD displayed poorer force steadiness and higher mental demand compared to the TD participant and in dual task conditions. The TD participant displayed a commonly observed pattern of CMC that was highly localised over the contralateral hand area, the DCD participant displayed a neurally inefficient localisation of CMC across cortical regions. Conclusions and Implications: This is the first evidence of dysconnection in communication between the brain and muscle in DCD and suggests that future research in this area is warranted.