The Implications of Motor and Cognitive Inhibition for Hot and Cool Executive Functions: The Case of Quadrato Motor Training

Abstract

Enabling the ceasing of ongoing or prepotent responses and the controlling of interference, motor inhibition facilitates the development of executive functions (EFs) such as thought before action, decision-making, self-regulation of affect, motivation, and arousal. In the current paper, a characterization is offered of the relationship between motor inhibition and the executive functioning system, in the context of a proposed division into predominantly affective (hot) and cognitive (cool) components corresponding to neural trajectories originating in the prefrontal cortex. This division is central to understanding the effects of a specifically-structured sensorimotor movement training practice, known as Quadrato Motor Training (QMT), on hot and cool EFs. QMT's effects on crucial mechanisms of integrating different EF components are discussed.

Keywords: executive functions; motor inhibition; quadrato motor training; self regulation; sensorimotor training.