Manual dexterity in young and healthy older adults. 2. Association with cognitive abilities

Abstract

Currently, little is known about the cognitive constraints underlying manual dexterity decline in aging. Here, we assessed the relationship between cognitive function and dexterity in 45 young and 55 healthy older adults. Effects of gender on the cognition-dexterity association were also explored. Cognitive assessment comprised neuropsychological tests of executive function, working memory, attention, and memory. Dexterity assessment included evaluation of movement times and kinematics during performance of unimanual and bimanual tasks of the Purdue Pegboard Test. Cognitive and dexterity group differences were established. Thereafter, regression analyses showed that executive function best predicted movement times and to some extent path lengths for the left hand in the older group. No gender differences were found in older participants. The findings confirm the involvement of executive function in manual dexterity in aging and suggest that movement times and path length may be useful parameters to assess the cognition-dexterity association in older adults.

Aging and Bimanual Effects on Finger Center of Pressure during Precision Grip: Different Strategies for Spatial Stability

“…In the older subjects, the DTC of the GF was related to the executive function only in the non-dominant hand. Previous studies showed that bimanual task performance was associated with the executive function in elderly people only in the non-dominant hand [41,42]. These findings are consistent with the results in this study, suggesting that the non-dominant hand in the older adults may be supported by higher cognitive processing.…”

“…As another possibility, simultaneous performance of the pegboard task may have led to increased GF. Several studies reported that executive function was linked with pegboard task performance [39][40][41]. Therefore, it is possible that the interference with the GF control was increased in subjects with poor executive function because they needed to allocate more resources to the pegboard task.…”

Examining the Interactions Between Expectations and tDCS Effects on Motor and Cognitive Performance

“…Studies have demonstrated the reliability and degree of challenge of the GPT across the lifespan (Wang et al, 2011). Although primarily used as an index of manual dexterity, the GPT can also capture cognitive function because its performance relies on executive control (e.g., decision making, monitoring of performance) (Ashendorf et al, 2009; Bezdicek et al, 2014; Vasylenko et al, 2018). Moreover, tDCS applied during training may improve GPT performance in young adults (Christova et al, 2015), although the evidence for this effect remains sparse and inconsistent (Fagerlund et al, 2015).…”

Manual dexterity in young and healthy older adults. 1. Age‐ and gender‐related differences in unimanual and bimanual performance

“…Physical hand function was evaluated with the Grip Strength Test and the Finger Tapping Test from the Halstead-Reitan neuropsychological battery, 2 nd edition (Reitan & Wolfson, 1993). Age-related differences in hand function are discussed in the companion article (Vasylenko, Gorecka, & Rodríguez-Aranda, 2018). To define handedness, three tests were used.…”