A mobile application named HLTapper was designed for Android mobile phones to collect and assess real-time alternating finger tapping movement data such as mean tapping speeds, temporal variations of tapping intervals, horizontal tapping variances, and vertical tapping variances, from built-in sensors while a subject performs the finger tapping movement task according to directions given through the application interface. The results of a controlled experiment (40 subjects including nine subjects with Parkinson disease, 11 healthy age-matched subjects, and 20 healthy young subjects) and a discriminant analysis revealed sensitivity of 85.71% and specificity of 91.42%, on an average, which suggests that HLTapper would be useful for early diagnosis and personalised treatment plan adjustments of patients with Parkinson disease.
This study investigated age-related differences in tapping speed with respect to warm-up and fatigue effects and also with respect to task complexity. An additional purpose was to determine the site of age-related slowing in stationary tapping. Adult females from three different age groups were asked to tap as fast as possible for 25 s with a specified digit combination by depressing microswitches on one or two metal boxes that were mounted on a data acquisition board. All groups showed a warm-up period during the first block, reached their peak tapping speed during the second block, and then gradually fatigued, as indicated by a decreasing number of taps. These findings suggest that to assess true tapping speed, a trial should not last more than 15 s, or the results may be confounded by fatigue effects. It was found that tapping with the thumb and index finger simultaneously is more difficult than tapping with one or both index fingers, regardless of age.
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