Touch perception throughout working life: effects of age and expertise

Reuter, Eva‐Maria; Voelcker‐Rehage, Claudia; Vieluf, Solveig; Godde, Ben

doi:10.1007/s00221-011-2931-5

Cited by 68 publications

(61 citation statements)

References 63 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…27,29 Consistent with previous findings, we showed that spatial acuity measured by the grating orientation test declines with age-at least for "healthy" fingers. 30 This trend could not be shown for the injured side. A neural mechanism explaining why age is associated with the grating orientation test only on the healthy side might be the age-related reduction in peripheral innervation density.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

Evaluation of Cutaneous Spatial Resolution and Pressure Threshold Secondary to Digital Nerve Repair

Klein

Fakin

Ducommun

et al. 2016

Plastic &Amp; Reconstructive Surgery

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BACKGROUND: As the sophistication of functional reconstruction procedures continues to increase, so does the need for valid, precise, and reliable instruments to assess their clinical results. The authors compare two tests for spatial resolution and two for cutaneous pressure threshold in an adult patient cohort having undergone microsurgical digital nerve repair after traumatic transection. METHODS: Patients who underwent epineural coaptation after digital nerve transection at the authors' institution between June of 2006 and December of 2011 were asked to participate in a follow-up examination assessing spatial resolution (two-point discrimination and grating orientation test) and cutaneous pressure threshold (Semmes-Weinstein monofilament test and pressure-specifying sensory device). Interinstrument correlations were conducted and critically elucidated. RESULTS: Eighty-one patients (26 female and 55 male patients; median age, 42 years; interquartile range, 23 years) were examined with a mean follow-up period of 3.5 ± 1.4 years. Although all tests could differentiate between the healthy and operated fingers, poor to moderate correlations were found between two-point discrimination and grating orientation test ((operated) = 0.483, p < 0.0001; (healthy) = 0.350, p < 0.0001), and between SemmesWeinstein monofilament test and Pressure-Specified Sensory Device testing ((operated) = 0.287, p = 0.01; (healthy) = 0.382, p < 0.001), indicating that they measure different properties. Altogether, the grating orientation test proved superior to two-point discrimination, whereas Pressure-Specified Sensory Device testing was superior to Semmes-Weinstein monofilament testing. CONCLUSIONS: Thoughtful use of test instruments is advisable when assessing sensibility of the hand. This study suggests including Pressure-Specified Sensory Device testing to assess cutaneous pressure threshold and the grating orientation test to assess spatial resolution in clinical, routine test batteries. CLINICAL QUESTION/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Diagnostic, III. Zurich, SwitzerlandBackground: As the sophistication of functional reconstruction procedures continues to increase, so does the need for valid, precise, and reliable instruments to assess their clinical results. The authors compare two tests for spatial resolution and two for cutaneous pressure threshold in an adult patient cohort having undergone microsurgical digital nerve repair after traumatic transection. Methods: Patients who underwent epineural coaptation after digital nerve transection at the authors' institution between June of 2006 and December of 2011 were asked to participate in a follow-up examination assessing spatial resolution (two-point discrimination and grating orientation test) and cutaneous pressure threshold (Semmes-Weinstein monofilament test and pressure-specifying sensory device). Interinstrument correlations were conducted and critically elucidated. Results: Eighty-one patients (26 female and 55 male patients; median age, 42 years; interquartile range, 23 yea...

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

Evaluation of Cutaneous Spatial Resolution and Pressure Threshold Secondary to Digital Nerve Repair

Klein

Fakin

Ducommun

et al. 2016

Plastic &Amp; Reconstructive Surgery

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…It has also been suggested that work-related expertise in fine dexterous manipulation does not attenuate age-related changes in cutaneous sensation at the fingertip (Reuter et al 2012). Rather, changes in cutaneous thresholds on the palm may have implications for changes in motor control, especially for tasks involving the whole hand, rather than just the fingers, e.g., power grip versus precision grip.…”

Section: Functional Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Age-related changes in cutaneous sensation in the healthy human hand

Bowden

McNulty

2012

AGE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Cutaneous sensation deteriorates with age. It is not known if this change is consistent over the entire hand or if sensation is affected by changes in skin mechanics. Cutaneous perceptual thresholds were tested at eight sites in the glabrous skin and two in the hairy skin of both hands in 70 subjects (20-88 years), five male and five female per decade, using calibrated von Frey filaments, two-point discrimination, and texture discrimination. Venous occlusion at the wrist (40±10 mmHg) and moisturizer were used to alter skin mechanics. Cutaneous thresholds increased significantly with age (p<0.001); von Frey thresholds were 0.04 g [0.02-0.07] (median and interquartile range) in the 20s and 0.16 g [0.04-0.4] in the 80s, with differences between hands for older females (p00.044) but not males. The pattern of changes in cutaneous sensation varied according to the site tested with smaller changes on the fingers compared to the palm. Two-point discrimination deteriorated with age (p00.046), but with no interaction between sex, handedness, or changes in skin mechanics. There were no significant differences for texture discrimination. Changes in skin mechanics improved cutaneous thresholds in the oldest males after moisturizing (p00.001) but not otherwise. These results emphasize the complex pattern of age-related deterioration in cutaneous sensation with differences between sexes, the hands, sites on the hand, and the mode of testing. As the index fingertip is not a sensitive indicator of sensory decline, the minimum assessment of age-related changes in cutaneous sensation should include both hands, and sites on the palm.

show abstract

“…This allows, for instance, to prevent an object from slipping when moving or holding it. Although the dexterous use of hands is impaired with age (for an overview, see Diermayr, McIsaac, & Gordon, 2010) from middle adulthood onward (Lindberg, Ody, Feydy, & Maier, 2009;Reuter, Voelcker-Rehage, Vieluf, & Godde, 2012;, it has been shown that older adults can improve performance or acquire new tasks (Voelcker-Rehage, 2008). So far, agerelated changes in fine motor control and learning have mainly been investigated in unimanual force modulation tasks.…”

mentioning

confidence: 98%

Practice Effects in Bimanual Force Control: Does Age Matter?

Vieluf

Godde

Reuter

et al. 2015

Journal of Motor Behavior

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The authors examined age-related differences in fine motor control during a bimanual coordination task. The task required the modulation of fingertip forces in the precision grip according to a visually presented sinusoidal antiphase pattern (force range 2-12 N; frequency 0.2 Hz). Thirty-four right-handed participants of three age groups (young, early middle-aged, and late middle-aged) practiced 30 trials of the task. Accuracy and variability of relative timing and relative forces at minima and maxima of the sine wave were analyzed for hand-hand and hand-stimulus couplings and compared between age groups. Analysis showed for relative timing and force weaker hand-hand than hand-stimulus coupling as well as lower accuracy and higher variability for minima as compared to maxima. Further, we analyzed practice effects by comparing the first and last trials and characterized the course of practice by detecting the transition of a steeper to a shallower acquisition slope for the different age groups. Late middle-aged participants demonstrated poorer performance than both other groups for all parameters. All groups improved performance to a similar amount. However, an age-related difference in acquisition strategy is visible. Late middle-aged participants seemed to have focused on improvement of force amplitude, whereas young and early middle-aged focused on timing.

show abstract

Touch perception throughout working life: effects of age and expertise

Cited by 68 publications

References 63 publications

Evaluation of Cutaneous Spatial Resolution and Pressure Threshold Secondary to Digital Nerve Repair

Evaluation of Cutaneous Spatial Resolution and Pressure Threshold Secondary to Digital Nerve Repair

Age-related changes in cutaneous sensation in the healthy human hand

Practice Effects in Bimanual Force Control: Does Age Matter?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About