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New Functional Measure of for Movement Disorder Detection, Progression and Efficacy of Intervention
Author(s) -
Nelson Frank E,
Ortega Justus D,
Conley Kevin E
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.26.1_supplement.1035.7
Subject(s) - physical medicine and rehabilitation , motor control , functional movement , motor system , finger tapping , psychology , intervention (counseling) , computer science , rehabilitation , movement (music) , neuroscience , medicine , audiology , psychiatry , philosophy , aesthetics
We know the daily functional tasks become harder to execute as we age. However, we do not know if the cause of this functional decline is the result of decreases in motor control in one area or a suite of areas. Recent work with the elderly and patients with movement disorders have developed several functional measures of overall decline. Each of these functional measures 1) initiation, 2) timing, 3) force steadiness, 4) error correction, and 5) neural integrity are linked to different regions of the brain. Here we use all five functional measures from different systems and adopt them to one simple biomechanical system. The system we chose is lateral movement of the index finger in holding and lifting a light load, timed tapping with and without external cues, and fast tapping. This movement is ideal for a sensitive measure since the biomechanical system only involves one joint, muscle and motor nerve. With these motor tasks and simple biomechanical system, we can explain 97% of the variance in motor control that naturally occurs with age. The outcome of our measurements is that on average there is not just one functional measure which declines with age, but a suite. This finding will be influential in the design of motor control rehabilitation program advising the targeting of suites of motor deficits instead of focusing on what seems like the primary motor deficit.