Centre for Human Drug Research, Leiden, the Netherlands.
Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, the Netherlands.
PLoS One. 2021 Dec 7;16(12):e0260783. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0260783. eCollection 2021.
Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects almost 2% of the population above the age of 65. To better quantify the effects of new medications, fast and objective methods are needed. Touchscreen-based tapping tasks are simple yet effective tools for quantifying drug effects on PD-related motor symptoms, especially bradykinesia. However, there is no consensus on the optimal task set-up. The present study compares four tapping tasks in 14 healthy participants. In alternate finger tapping (AFT), tapping occurred with the index and middle finger with 2.5 cm between targets, whereas in alternate side tapping (AST) the index finger with 20 cm between targets was used. Both configurations were tested with or without the presence of a visual cue. Moreover, for each tapping task, within- and between-day repeatability and (potential) sensitivity of the calculated parameters were assessed. Visual cueing reduced tapping speed and rhythm, and improved accuracy. This effect was most pronounced for AST. On average, AST had a lower tapping speed with impaired accuracy and improved rhythm compared to AFT. Of all parameters, the total number of taps and mean spatial error had the highest repeatability and sensitivity. The findings suggest against the use of visual cueing because it is crucial that parameters can vary freely to accurately capture medication effects. The choice for AFT or AST depends on the research question, as these tasks assess different aspects of movement. These results encourage further validation of non-cued AFT and AST in PD patients.
帕金森病（PD）是一种进行性神经退行性疾病，影响着 65 岁以上人群中近 2%的人。为了更好地量化新药的效果，需要快速和客观的方法。基于触摸屏的敲击任务是量化药物对 PD 相关运动症状（尤其是运动迟缓）影响的简单而有效的工具。然而，对于最佳任务设置还没有达成共识。本研究在 14 名健康参与者中比较了四种敲击任务。在交替手指敲击（AFT）中，用食指和中指以 2.5 厘米的间隔敲击目标，而在交替侧敲击（AST）中，用食指以 20 厘米的间隔敲击目标。两种配置都在有或没有视觉提示的情况下进行了测试。此外，对于每种敲击任务，评估了计算参数的日内和日间重复性和（潜在）敏感性。视觉提示降低了敲击速度和节奏，提高了准确性。这种效果在 AST 中最为明显。平均而言，AST 的敲击速度较慢，准确性降低，节奏提高，与 AFT 相比。在所有参数中，总敲击次数和平均空间误差具有最高的重复性和敏感性。研究结果表明，不应使用视觉提示，因为重要的是参数可以自由变化，以准确捕捉药物效果。选择 AFT 还是 AST 取决于研究问题，因为这些任务评估了运动的不同方面。这些结果鼓励进一步验证 PD 患者无提示 AFT 和 AST 的有效性。
