Quadrato Motor Training (QMT) as a Neurobehavioral Intervention for At-Risk Populations

• In Event: Biological, biosocial and psychological interventions

Abstract

Quadrato Motor Training (QMT) is a structured sensorimotor practice that engages participants in executing and inhibiting motor responses based on auditory cues. Central to QMT is motor inhibition, a key executive function (EF) underpinning self-regulation, decision-making, and impulse control—cognitive faculties often impaired in populations at risk for maladaptive behaviors, including individuals with ADHD, PTSD, or antisocial traits. Neuroimaging studies suggest that QMT enhances connectivity in prefrontal and limbic regions, reflecting improved integration of hot and cool EFs, which are critical for behavioral regulation.
QMT is theoretically grounded in the Sphere Model of Consciousness (SMC), which conceptualizes consciousness as comprising three concentric states of the Self: the Narrative Self (NS), the Minimal Self (MS), and the Overcoming of the Self (OCS). QMT primarily engages the Minimal Self, necessitating continuous, real-time bodily awareness and auditory processing. Electrophysiological evidence indicates that QMT enhances frontal and parietal alpha and theta oscillations, fostering cognitive flexibility, attentional control, and inhibition. This shift in neural dynamics may reduce reliance on self-referential processing associated with the Narrative Self (gamma and beta activity) in favor of embodied, present-moment awareness characteristic of the Minimal Self (alpha and theta activity).
Given its capacity to enhance ideational flexibility, self-efficacy, emotional regulation, and attentional control, QMT represents a promising non-pharmacological intervention for improving behavioral regulation in criminogenic populations. Future research should evaluate its efficacy in clinical and forensic settings to mitigate maladaptive behaviors through EF enhancement.

Authors

• Tal Dotan Ben-Soussan, Research Institute for Neuroscience, Education and Didactics, Fondazione Paoletti

• Rotem Leshem, Bar-Ilan University