Department of Health Sciences, Biostatistics Unit, University of Genoa, Via Pastore,1, Genoa, Italy.
Department of Experimental Medicine, Section of Human Physiology, University of Genoa, Viale Benedetto XV, Genoa, Italy.
PLoS One. 2017 Oct 18;12(10):e0186524. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0186524. eCollection 2017.
Finger opposition movements are the basis of many daily living activities and are essential in general for manipulating objects; an engineered glove quantitatively assessing motor performance during sequences of finger opposition movements has been shown to be useful to provide reliable measures of finger motor impairment, even subtle, in subjects affected by neurological diseases. However, the obtained behavioral parameters lack published reference values.
To determine mean values for different motor behavioral parameters describing the strategy adopted by healthy people in performing repeated sequences of finger opposition movements, examining associations with gender and age.
Normative values for finger motor performance parameters were obtained on a sample of 255 healthy volunteers executing sequences of finger-to-thumb opposition movements, stratified by gender and over a wide range of ages. Touch duration, inter-tapping interval, movement rate, correct sequences (%), movements in advance compared with a metronome (%) and inter-hand interval were assessed.
Increasing age resulted in decreased movement speed, advance movements with respect to a cue, correctness of sequences, and bimanual coordination. No significant performance differences were found between male and female subjects except for the duration of the finger touch, the interval between two successive touches and their ratio.
We report age- and gender-specific normal mean values and ranges for different parameters objectively describing the performance of finger opposition movement sequences, which may serve as useful references for clinicians to identify possible deficits in subjects affected by diseases altering fine hand motor skills.
手指对指运动是许多日常生活活动的基础，对于操纵物体至关重要；已经证明，一种能够定量评估手指对指运动序列中运动表现的工程手套对于提供手指运动障碍的可靠测量（即使是细微的障碍）非常有用，即使在受神经疾病影响的受试者中也是如此。然而，所获得的行为参数缺乏已发表的参考值。
确定描述健康人执行重复手指对指运动序列所采用策略的不同运动行为参数的平均值，同时检查这些参数与性别和年龄的相关性。
我们对 255 名健康志愿者进行了手指运动表现参数的正常值研究，这些志愿者执行手指对拇指的对指运动序列，按性别和广泛的年龄范围分层。评估了触摸持续时间、两次敲击之间的间隔、运动速度、正确序列（%）、相对于节拍器的提前运动（%）以及双手间隔。
年龄的增加导致运动速度降低、相对于提示的提前运动、序列的正确性以及双手协调性降低。除了手指触摸的持续时间、两次触摸之间的间隔及其比值外，男女受试者之间没有发现明显的运动性能差异。
我们报告了不同参数的年龄和性别特异性正常均值和范围，这些参数客观地描述了手指对指运动序列的表现，可作为临床医生识别可能影响精细手部运动技能的疾病患者潜在缺陷的有用参考。
