Fitts' Tapping Task as a New Test for Cognition and Manual Dexterity in Multiple Sclerosis: Validation Study

Area of Science:

• Neurology
• Rehabilitation Medicine
• Psychomotor Performance Assessment

Background:

• People with multiple sclerosis (pwMS) often experience subclinical physical decline early in their disease.
• Sensitive and reproducible measures are needed to detect this early disease activity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To validate Fitts’ Tapping Task (FTT) as a reproducible measure of psychomotor performance in newly-diagnosed pwMS.
• To assess FTT's ability to detect early, subclinical worsening in pwMS.

Main Methods:

• Thirty newly-diagnosed pwMS, 30 people with migraine, and 30 healthy controls (HCs) completed psychomotor tests, including FTT.
• Reproducibility was assessed via intrarater, interrater, and test-retest analyses.
• Longitudinal assessment of 8 pwMS over 2 years evaluated changes in FTT performance.

Main Results:

• FTT demonstrated high intrarater and interrater reproducibility (ICC=0.961).
• Test-retest analysis showed a minimal detectable change (MDC) of >15% for average FTT.
• Newly-diagnosed pwMS showed significantly slower FTT and dexterity times compared to controls.
• FTT and dexterity tests differentiated pwMS from HCs with 80% accuracy.
• 75% of pwMS showed >15% worsening in FTT over 2 years, despite clinical stability.

Conclusions:

• FTT is a highly reproducible and sensitive tool for assessing psychomotor function in early-stage MS.
• FTT can detect insidious psychomotor and cognitive decline in pwMS before it becomes clinically apparent.
• This task aids in monitoring disease progression and the effectiveness of interventions in pwMS.