Theses and Dissertations

Yonjoong Ryuh

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Chen, Chih-Chia

Committee Member

Agiovlasitis, Stamatis

Committee Member

Conners, Frances

Committee Member

Lamberth, John

Committee Member

Pan, Zhujun

Date of Degree

8-7-2020

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

Major

Exercise Physiology

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

College

College of Education

Department

Department of Kinesiology

Abstract

As motor learning in individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) has been poorly elucidated, this study aimed to apply an acute aerobic exercise (AE), well-known intervention favorable to motor learning in typically developing individuals, to assist people with ID in motor learning, and examine its underlying mechanisms via EF and EEG assessments. 17 adults with ID (11 males, aged 31.41 ± 9.7, & mental aged 7.69 ± 3.06) participated in this within-group counterbalanced study. They participated in 2 interventions, a vigorous treadmill walking (AE) or seated rest (CON) condition, with having a month of wash-out period in between interventions. The pre-test, post-test, 24-hour retention test, and 7-day retention test was administered, and each testing phase administered a golf putt performance under both original (i.e., with guideline) and transfer putt tasks (i.e., without guideline), EF (i.e., Knock and Tap test, forward and backward Digit span test, forward and backward Corsi block test), and resting EEG assessment. Golf putting accuracy in post-test was not significantly different from the pre-test; however, the putt accuracy under the transfer putt task indicated an interaction effect at 24-hour retention test phase compared to pre-test, F(1, 32) = 5.26, p = .03, ηp2 = .14, and paired t-test indicated a near significant improvement in putt accuracy in AE (p = .07), but not in CON condition (p = .23). The pre-test and 7-day retention phases did not indicate a significant effect on golf putt skill. As EF variables and resting EEG temporal alpha asymmetry (TAA) remained unchanged throughout the procedure, underlying mechanisms of change in putt skill need to be further investigated. This study revealed a trend that the AE positively influenced golf putt accuracy and offline motor memory consolidation at 24-hour retention phase, but the effects were not statistically significant. Given that the study procedure did not include practice blocks, the observed positive impact of AE on golf putt accuracy is promising; thus, a future study is recommended to further verify the benefit of AE on motor learning in individuals with ID, as well as with rigorous EF and EEG measures to elucidate possible underlying mechanisms of AE-dependent improvement in motor skill.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/18039

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