Assessment of finger motor function that reflects the severity of cognitive function.
Shota Suzumura, Yoshikiyo Kanada, Aiko Osawa, Junpei Sugioka, Natsumi Maeda, Taishi Nagahama, Kenta Shiramoto, Katsumi Kuno, Shiori Kizuka, Yuko Sano, Tomohiko Mizuguchi, Akihiko Kandori, Izumi Kondo
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: We conducted a finger tapping movement test using a finger tapping device with magnetic sensors (UB-2) and performed multiple regression analyses using a number of finger movements parameters to estimate the severity of cognitive impairment. METHODS: The subjects of this study were 64 patients, including 44 diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease (AD) (mean age: 73.8±7.0 years) and 20 diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) (mean age: 76.7±4.2 years). For the finger-tapping movement tasks, we tested single-hand (left and right) tapping, simultaneous tapping of both hands, and alternate tapping between hands. After measurement, multiple regression analysis adjusted for age and sex was performed to predict the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score from the calculated hand parameters. RESULTS: ) ranged between 0.1 to 0.28. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest the possibility that these parameters may be used to assess cognitive function. We shall obtain large-scale data from older people to examine the possibility of these parameters to be used as an early diagnostic tool for dementia patients.