Polyphasic Temporal Behavior of Finger-Tapping Performance: A Measure of Motor Skills and Fatigue

Abstract

Successive voluntary motor movement involves a number of physiological mechanisms and may reflect motor skill development and neuromuscular fatigue. In this study, the temporal behavior of finger tapping was investigated in relation to motor skills and fatigue by using a long-term computer-based test. The finger-tapping performances of 29 healthy male volunteers were analyzed using linear and nonlinear regression models established for inter-tapping interval. The results suggest that finger-tapping performance exhibits a polyphasic nature, and has several characteristic time points, which may be directly related to muscle dynamics and energy consumption. In conclusion, we believe that future studies evaluating the polyphasic nature of the maximal voluntary movement will lead to the definition of objective scales that can be used in the follow up of some neuromuscular diseases, as well as, the determination of motor skills, individual ability, and peripheral fatigue through the use of a low cost, easy-to-use computer-based finger-tapping test.

The Impacts of Central Fatigue on the Polyphasic Nature of Tapping Performance

“…Further detail may be found in our earlier article (16). All of the tests were performed between 8:00 and 9:00 a.m., and the total duration of each test took less than 10 min of the participant.…”

“…MVRM for index finger was conducted using the digital FT task test system (15,16,24). The system records Inter Tap Intervals (ITI), which is the time difference between consecutive taps, in ms resolution by making use of the time-stamp counter of microprocessor and saves data array on the hard drive of a computer for later analysis.…”

“…The scale includes questions concerning the hand preferred for writing, drawing pictures, throwing a stone or ball, using scissors, using a toothbrush, using a knife without a fork, using a fork, striking a match, and opening the lid of a bottle. The results were evaluated according to the Geschwind score (16,21).…”

“…Our earlier studies (15,16) employing a lower technology method of fingertapping (FT) task test suggest that the performance of maximal voluntary repetitive movements (MVRM) has polyphasic nature and the temporal analysis may reflect the dynamics and/or energetic states of the muscle involved in the movement (Figure 2). It may be hypothesized that under induced fatigue condition the MVRM may also mimic the dynamics of fatigue and therefore, may be used in evaluating the origin of fatigue phenomenon.…”

“…PC6.0 is the time at which anaerobic glycolytic systems' output reaches its maximum. "HGx.x" represents the onset time (x.x) of "Ha gayret phenomenon (adopted after the studies of 13,[15][16][17][18][19].…”