Department of Experimental Medicine, Section of Human Physiology, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy.
Department of Neuroscience, Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology, Genetics, Maternal and Child Health, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy.
Sci Rep. 2017 Dec 18;7(1):17730. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-18066-7.
Handwriting is an important activity of daily living, which requires sensorimotor and cognitive skills that could deteriorate in presence of neurological diseases. Handwriting impairments are common in people with multiple sclerosis (PwMS). Aims of the present study were to characterize handwriting movement features of PwMS in comparison with those of healthy adults, and to evaluate the relationship between kinematic parameters of handwriting movements and the results of the assessment of cognitive and motor domains. A new handwriting evaluation methodology was applied to quantify handwriting features of 19 PwMS and 22 age-matched healthy controls who were required to write a sentence on a digitizing tablet. Kinematic parameters of the sentence and of the strokes were used to evaluate handwriting performance. PwMS showed an altered handwriting kinematics with respect to healthy controls: higher movement duration, fragmented velocity profile and higher jerk. Furthermore, motor abilities and cognitive status of PwMS were related to handwriting parameters in accordance with the evidence that MS is a multifactorial disease affecting different domains. These results suggested that the proposed methodology might be a valuable tool to quantitatively assess handwriting impairments and the efficacy of handwriting treatments in PwMS.
书写是日常生活中的一项重要活动，需要运用感觉运动和认知技能，而这些技能在存在神经疾病时可能会恶化。书写障碍在多发性硬化症患者（PwMS）中很常见。本研究的目的是比较 PwMS 与健康成年人的书写运动特征，并评估书写运动运动学参数与认知和运动领域评估结果之间的关系。本研究应用一种新的书写评估方法来量化 19 名 PwMS 和 22 名年龄匹配的健康对照组的书写特征，要求他们在数字化写字板上写一个句子。使用句子和笔画的运动学参数来评估书写表现。与健康对照组相比，PwMS 的书写运动学发生了改变：运动持续时间更长、速度曲线呈碎片化、速度变化率更大。此外，PwMS 的运动能力和认知状态与书写参数相关，这表明 MS 是一种多因素疾病，影响不同的领域。这些结果表明，所提出的方法可能是一种评估 PwMS 书写障碍和书写治疗效果的有价值的工具。
