Title
A Statistical Characterization of the Finger Tapping Test: Modeling, Estimation, and Applications
Abstract
Sensory-motor performance is indicative of both cognitive and physical function. The Halstead-Reitan finger tapping test is a measure of sensory-motor speed commonly used to assess function as part of a neuropsychological evaluation. Despite the widespread use of this test, the underlying motor and cognitive processes driving tapping behavior during the test are not well characterized or understood. This lack of understanding may make clinical inferences from test results about health or disease state less accurate because important aspects of the task such as variability or fatigue are unmeasured. To overcome these limitations, we enhanced the tapper with a sensor that enables us to more fully characterize all the aspects of tapping. This modification enabled us to decompose the tapping performance into six component phases and represent each phase with a set of parameters having clear functional interpretation. This results in a set of 29 total parameters for each trial, including change in tapping over time, and trial-to-trial and tap-to-tap variability. These parameters can be used to more precisely link different aspects of cognition or motor function to tapping behavior. We demonstrate the benefits of this new instrument with a simple hypothesis-driven trial comparing single and dual-task tapping.
Year
DOI
Venue
2015
10.1109/JBHI.2014.2384911
IEEE J. Biomedical and Health Informatics
Keywords
Field
DocType
muscle,biomechanics,informatics,cognition,psychology,potentiometers,neurophysiology
Neuropsychological testing,Physical function,Pattern recognition,Computer science,Tapping,Artificial intelligence,Perceptual-motor processes,Cognition,Neuropsychology,Finger tapping test,Motor function
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
19
2
2168-2194
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
2
0.42
1
Authors
5
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Daniel Austin19117.29
James McNames239548.86
Krystal Klein320.42
Holly Brügge Jimison412811.62
Misha Pavel576099.04