INTERHEMISPHERIC MOTOR COORDINATION AND FRONTO-STRIATAL INHIBITION: BEHAVIORAL EVIDENCE FROM A GO/NO-GO STUDY IN 4–7-YEAR-OLDS

This study explored whether response inhibition in early childhood relates to bimanual motor planning and sequencing, beyond just processing speed. The sample included 184 children aged 4–7 years (M = 5.91, SD = 0.60).
We assessed fine and bimanual motor skills through five tasks: timed dotting, stick catch, cup stacking, match pick-up, and coin stacking. We also measured simple reaction time (RT) using a smartphone.
Inhibitory control was assessed by No-Go accuracy on a Go/No-Go task (Early Years Toolbox). We standardized motor measures, inverted time-based measures, and summarized the unimanual and bimanual composites.
We found a small but significant link between the bimanual composite and No-Go accuracy (r = .176, p = .017), mainly driven by the match pick-up task (r = .223, p = .003). In a hierarchical regression that controlled for age, sex, and RT, bimanual coordination explained additional variance in No-Go accuracy (ΔR² = .038; β = .200, p = .008), whereas the unimanual composite did not. The effect held true even after excluding extreme values.
These results support the idea that bimanual coordination relies on interhemispheric integration, as evidenced by the corpus callosum's microstructure. In contrast, effective No-Go performance activates a fronto-striatal inhibitory control network that includes the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and pre-SMA.
We suggested that the observed behavioral connection represents the developmental relationship between interhemispheric communication and top-down motor control, rather than a general “faster-is-better” speed effect. This view aligns with meta-analytic findings showing small, reliable links between motor skills and executive functions in childhood.