Development and Standardisation of the Computerised Finger Tapping Test: Comparison with Other Finger Tapping Instruments

The finger-tapping test is a neuropsychological test that assesses motor speed and motor control. The purpose of this study was to obtain normative data for a computerised finger-tapping instrument and to compare it to other traditional finger tapping devices. Eighty-six non-clinical volunteers were tested on the Computer Finger Tapping Test (CFTT), the Western Psychological Services (WPS) digital finger-tapping test (DFTT), and another manual finger tapping test developed by Massey University (MUFTT). Eighty of these participants were also tested on the Halstead-Reitan finger-tapping test (HRFTT). This sample of volunteers was stratified according to gender and age, with four age groups ranging from 16 to 70 years. Correlations between the four tapping tests were high. The CFTT showed similar psychometric properties to those of the other three tapping tests. As expected, higher tapping scores were obtained using the dominant hand, males obtained higher scores than females, and there was a decrease in tapping speed associated with increasing age. ********** The Finger Tapping Test (FTT), originally developed as part of the Halstead Reitan Battery (HRB) of neuropsychological tests, is a simple measure of motor speed and motor control (Mitrushina, Boone & D'Elia, 1999) and is used in neuropsychology as a sensitive test for brain damage. Although motor functioning in humans is controlled by many areas of the brain, the motor strip rostral to the central sulcus is most important, and the functioning of this area is reflected directly in the FTT (Russell, Neuringer & Goldstein, 1970). As well as direct motor effects, the speed, co-ordination, and pacing requirements of finger tapping can be affected by levels of alertness, impaired ability to focus attention, or slowing of responses. By examining both level of performance and by comparing the two sides of the body, tests of motor performance can be used as reliable indicators of the integrity of brain functions (Dodrill, 1978). Recent studies have reported impairment of FTT performance in populations with Alzheimer's disease (Wefel, Hoyt & Massama, 1999); traumatic brain injury (Geldmacher & Hills, 1997); and schizophrenia (Flashman, Flaum & Andreason, 1996). The FTT was used in earlier studies to investigate the effects of lithium carbonate in bipolar patients (Shaw, Stokes, Mann & Manevitz, 1987), relapsing-remitting and chronic-progressive multiple sclerosis (Heaton, Nelson & Thompson, 1985), psychiatric disorders in adults (Heaton, Baade & Johnson, 1978), and paint sniffing (Tsushima & Towne, 1977). These studies have shown that both neurological and psychological pathology can impact significantly on motor speed, which may limit performance in other functional areas. The relationship between age and neuropsychological test performance has long been recognised (Bornstein, Paniak & O'Brien, 1987) and in a study of a number of neuropsychological measures administered to a non-clinical sample, finger tapping gave the strongest correlation with age (Bornstein, 1985). Males tend to perform better than females on tests of strength and fine-motor speed (Leckliter & Matarazzo, 1989). Nicholson & Kimura (1996) observed that men were significantly faster than women at tapping with a single finger, and concluded that the speed advantage in men was related to the relative increase in the amount of fast-twitch muscle at puberty. On average, men experienced no significant decline in finger-tapping speed with increasing age, while women's performance decreased with increasing age (Ruff & Parker, 1993). The principle of contralateral control operates for both motor and sensory functioning, with representation in the brain opposite the location in the body (Russell et. al., 1970). Generally, performance with the preferred hand is superior to that of the non-preferred hand. Following brain injury performance tends to be worse in the hand contralateral to the lesion (Spreen & Strauss). …