Finger tapping and paratonia assessment in older adults with and without Mild cognitive impairment, motor-cognitive correlations

Dementia syndromes involve cognitive but also early motor impairment. Finger tapping is a widely used motor assessment tool and Quantitative parameters may provide insights into the motor-cognitive association. Paratonia is another, frequently observed motor manifestation of dementia. A total of 104 participants underwent motor assessments, including the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), quantitative finger tapping, and paratonia scales. Cognitive function was assessed using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Cognitively Impaired participants exhibited a prolonged strike duration compared to healthy participants. Executive function (EF), correlated with tapping parameters, suggesting shared neural mechanisms. Interestingly, participants with worse memory performance demonstrated greater temporal regularity. Paratonia was prevalent among participants and correlated with age and EF, reinforcing its association with frontal dysfunction. Significant differences were also revealed in motor-cognitive correlations between the two genders. This study provides important information about motor deficits in older adults, highlighting their associations with cognitive decline as well as the influence of gender and age on them. Quantitative assessment of finger tapping also proves to be an objective recorder of motor parameters linked to cognitive impairment. Future longitudinal studies are needed to evaluate the predictive value of these motor parameters in dementia progression.