Finger tapping, the most widely used test for evaluating motor dysfunction in Parkinson's disease (PD), was found to react sensitively to disease specific factors like disease severity and changes in medication. A possible interference caused by disease unrelated demographic factors--age, gender, education and dexterity--however has not yet been studied systematically. Various components of tapping performance of 187 healthy subjects and 200 PD patients were assessed by means of the BRAIN TEST, a digitalized test battery. The effects of demographic factors--above all education and age--were found to be significant. These influences generally affect different aspects of movement to a different extent, with speed and akinesia being affected more severely than dysmetria and arrhythmokinesis. Our study suggests that whenever precise assement of upper limb motor performance is needed, specific corrections for these demographic factors in both healthy controls and PD patients are necessary.

Pilates exercise programs focus on increasing the strength and flexibility of muscles which make up core stability. Since the same muscles take part in maintaining proper posture, the aim of this study was to provide an overview of the existing research in order to determine the effects of a pilates exercise program on the improvement of postural status. When searching electronic databases, the following key words were used: spine, posture, effect, pilates, kyphosis, scoliosis, lordosis. Based on the set criteria, that the research was published after 2010 and that the applied pilates exercise programs focused on correcting postural status, the final analysis included 10 studies. An analysis of the characteristics of the sample of participants indicates that the problem of postural disorders is equally present among individuals of various ages. In terms of gender, in the analyzed studies the female population was almost four times the size of the male population. In most of the studies the exercise program lasted for 8 and 12 weeks, with 2 to 3 training sessions per week, with a duration of 60 min. Eight of the analyzed studies show that pilates exercise programs led to an improvement in the postural status. Based on the extensive analysis, it can be concluded that pilates has positive effects on the correction of postural disorders of the spinal column, such as kyphosis, lordosis and scoliosis among people of different ages.