ArticleBrain sciences2024
Associations between Gross and Fine Motor Skills, Physical Activity, Executive Function, and Academic Achievement: Longitudinal Findings from the UK Millennium Cohort Study.
Article in Brain sciences, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The impact of premature birth and low birth weight on motor, visual, and cognitive skills and mental health in adolescence: a systematic review and meta-analysis.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Effects of virtual reality interventions on motor skills in children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Effectiveness of virtual reality for functional disorders in cerebral palsy: an overview of systematic reviews and meta-analyses.Frontiers in neurology · 2025Pooled it
- Effect of Pressure-Biofeedback on Manual Dexterity in Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder.Applied psychophysiology and biofeedback · 2026Trial
- A study on the impact of childhood obesity on health-related physical fitness through motor coordination-related functional pathways.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Article
- The relationship between physical activity, working memory, and mathematics achievement on the basis of socioeconomic status: the mediating role of physical fitness level.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2026Article
- Fine motor skills at preschool age and later academic skills: an indirect-effects analysis involving executive function in high-altitude Tibetan preschoolers.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Embodied Cognition and the Structure of Personality: An Exploratory Study of Longitudinal Pathways From Early Psychomotor Function.Journal of personality · 2025Article
- The Influence of Nonlinear Pedagogy Physical Education Intervention on Cognitive Abilities in Primary School Children: A Preliminary Study.Brain sciences · 2025Article
- Mapping EEG Metrics to Human Affective and Cognitive Models: An Interdisciplinary Scoping Review from a Cognitive Neuroscience Perspective.Biomimetics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Tracing the Cognitive-Motor Connection: Prospective-Longitudinal Associations Between Early Parent-Toddler Literacy Activities and Subsequent Gross Motor Skills at School Entry.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- A Multimodal Physical Program Combining Abacus Use and Exercise to Improve Motor Coordination and Flexibility in Primary School Children.Journal of functional morphology and kinesiology · 2025Article
- Chain-mediation effect of cognitive flexibility and depression on the relationship between physical activity and insomnia in adolescents.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Fine Motor Ability and Executive Function in Autistic and Non-autistic Toddlers.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2025Article
- The relationship between motor competence and executive function as influenced by age, sex, and family socio-economic status.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Age-dependent mechanisms of exercise in the treatment of depression: a comprehensive review of physiological and psychological pathways.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Review
- Developmental characteristics of orientation and differentiation abilities in the control of jumping distance in preschool children.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2025Article
- The relationship between fundamental motor skills and executive function in children: a stratified analysis by age and sex.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Fundamental motor skills, executive functions, and academic achievement of Chinese schoolchildren: Testing a mediating model.PloS one · 2025Article
- Cognitive health outcomes of fundamental motor skill applications in children through cooperative learning method.BMC psychology · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Accumulating evidence from behavioral studies and neuroscience suggests that motor and cognitive development are intrinsically intertwined. To explore the underlying mechanisms of this motor-cognition link, our study examined the longitudinal relationship of early motor skills and physical activity with later cognitive skills. The sample was 3188 children from the United Kingdom Millennium Cohort Study, followed at 9 months and 5, 7, and 11 years. Early motor skills were examined at 9 months. Children's daily physical activity level was measured using accelerometers at 7 years and a questionnaire was conducted at 11 years. Cognitive skills, including executive function and academic achievement, were measured at age 11. The results suggest that gross motor skills were positively associated with spatial working memory, whereas fine motor skills were predictive of good English and science outcomes. Moderate-to-vigorous activity was found to be negatively associated with English performance, although self-reported activity frequency was positively linked to math. Our results highlight the significant role of both gross and fine motor skills in cognitive development. This study also elucidates the limitations of using activity intensity to assess the impact of motor activity on children's cognitive development, suggesting that attention to the effects of specific types of physical activity would better elucidate the motor/cognition link.
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