Finger Tapping Frequency Research Articles

Finger Tapping Frequency and Accuracy Are Decreased in Early Stage Primary Degenerative Dementia

Finger tapping parameters were investigated in a group of 21 patients suffering from early (mild) stage of a tentative presenile dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT), in a group of 14 patients with a questionable beginning dementia on the background of cardiovascular disease (CVD), in an age-matched (elder) control group (n = 10) and in a younger control group (n = 16). DAT patients responded significantly more slowly and less accurately in tapping with maximal frequency, with a self-chosen preferred frequency and in tasks to follow rhythmic acoustic clicks. CVD patients responded slightly more slowly but more accurately than DAT patients. The data confirm the hypothesis that decrease of brain operational speed and of focussed attention are early symptoms of dementia, especially of DAT and develop prior to memory decline.

Effects of arousal and directed attention on hemispheric asymmetry in a finger-tapping dual-task paradigm.

In the present study we investigated the effects of concurrent verbal (reading) and nonverbal (humming) cognitive tasks on right- and left-hand finger-tapping in relation to hemispheric asymmetry in right- and left-handed females and males. The aim of the study was to investigate effects of attending either to the cognitive or manual task, and effects of differences in arousal attributed to the various tasks. The results revealed decreased finger-tapping frequency in males, and especially in right-handers, during execution of both the reading and humming task. For the reading task, the interference was lateralized, with a greater decrease in tapping frequency in the right hand. No interference was observed in the female groups. Biased attention to the cognitive or manual task did not have any effect on finger-tapping. However, increased arousal was observed during execution of the humming task, thus indicating this to be a mediating factor in finger-tapping interference.