A new screening test for idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus using bimanual coordination: A preliminary study

Area of Science:

• Neurology
• Motor Control Research

Background:

• Idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus (iNPH) is characterized by gait disturbance, cognitive impairment, and urinary incontinence.
• Quantitative studies on upper extremity motor abnormalities in iNPH are limited.

Purpose of the Study:

• To quantitatively assess bimanual tapping performance in iNPH patients.
• To compare bimanual coordination in iNPH patients with healthy control groups.

Main Methods:

• Three groups participated: iNPH patients, older healthy adults, and younger healthy adults.
• Participants performed unilateral, bimanual simultaneous, and bimanual alternate finger-to-thumb tapping tasks synchronized to a 1 Hz metronome.
• Two-way ANOVA analyzed absolute error (AE), variable error (VE), and constant error (CE) in tapping cycles.

Main Results:

• iNPH patients exhibited significantly increased AE and VE during bimanual alternate tapping (p < 0.05).
• No significant differences in tapping errors were observed between older and younger healthy control groups.

Conclusions:

• Bimanual alternate tapping tasks provide a quantitative measure of bimanual coordination in iNPH.
• This assessment method is potentially valuable for evaluating iNPH patients with mobility impairments.