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Actigraphic evaluation of handedness
G Nagels1, P Mariön, B A Pickut
1Department of Neurology, Middelheim General Hospital, Antwerp, Belgium.
Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology
|June 1, 1996
Summary
Actigraphy, an objective measure of motor activity, effectively distinguishes dominant and non-dominant hands. Shorter epoch lengths in actigraphy enhance sensitivity for assessing handedness and movement patterns.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Biomedical Engineering
- Human Motor Control
Background:
- Handedness is typically assessed using subjective inventories.
- Objective evaluation of motor activity using actigraphy has not been fully explored for handedness assessment.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the utility of actigraphy in objectively assessing handedness.
- To compare actigraphy-derived motor activity and movement patterns with established handedness measures.
Main Methods:
- 190 young volunteers completed the Edinburgh Inventory (EI) for handedness assessment.
- Actigraphy recorded motor activity from both wrists for 20 hours in 58 participants.
- Two actigraphic parameters, Activity Index (AI[x]) and Movement Index (MIy[x]), were calculated using a 4-second epoch length.
Main Results:
- The Movement Index (MIy[x]) showed a high correlation with EI scores (r = 0.65, P < 0.0001).
- The Activity Index (AI[x]) showed a moderate correlation with EI scores (r = 0.36, P < 0.005).
- Reducing epoch length to 60 seconds decreased the correlation between MIy[x] and EI.
Conclusions:
- Actigraphy can objectively discriminate between dominant and non-dominant hands.
- Movement pattern differences are more pronounced than total motor activity differences between hands.
- Shorter epoch lengths (e.g., 4 seconds) improve actigraphy's sensitivity for handedness discrimination.