title: Association between finger tapping, attention, memory, and cognitive diagnosis in elderly patients.
abstract: This study examined the association between spontaneous finger tapping and cognitive function, with a detailed analysis of the two main phases of finger tapping, the touch-phase and the off-phase. 170 elderly patients (83 men, 87 women; M age = 82.1 yr., SD = 6.2) underwent cognitive assessment including the Mini-Mental State Examination, a forward digit span test, and 15 sec. of finger tapping. Results indicated a significant increase in the length and variability of the finger-touch phase among participants with mild cognitive impairment or dementia compared to participants with no cognitive impairment, suggesting a relationship between finger tapping and attention, short-term memory, and cognitive diagnosis. Pattern classification analyses on the finger tapping parameters indicated a specificity of 0.91 and sensitivity of 0.52 for ruling out cognitive impairment.
authors.affiliation: 1 Clalit Health Services, Geriatric Assessment Unit Haifa and Western Galilee District, Haifa, Israel.
authors.forename: Israel
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Rabinowitz
authors.forename: Yizhar
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lavner
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D060825:Cognitive Dysfunction / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003704:Dementia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*