Finger Tapping and Other Time-Honored Maneuvers

Sleep is a process, which happens in human body and has many functions. One relatively recently studied function of sleep is its involvement in the motor learning process. This paper presents a historical overview of the studies on sleep, and the results of two experimental research studies that explore the motor learning of a simple finger tapping tasks performed by adults, and the sleep habits of boys practicing sports. The research results show that sleep has an effect on improving motion retention of simple motor tasks, and that sports improve sleep for boys, thus contributing to better learning.

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Neural support of manual preference revealed by BOLD variations during right and left finger-tapping in a sample of 287 healthy adults balanced for handedness

Laterality Asymmetries of Body Brain and Cognition ◽

10.1080/1357650x.2020.1862142 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-23

Author(s):

N. Tzourio-Mazoyer ◽

L. Labache ◽

L. Zago ◽

I. Hesling ◽

B. Mazoyer

Keyword(s):

Healthy Adults ◽

Finger Tapping

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Inhibitory Control of Adjacent Finger Movements while Performing a Modified Version of the Halstead Finger Tapping Test: Effects of Age, Education and Sex

Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society ◽

10.1017/s1355617720001101 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-12

Author(s):

George P. Prigatano ◽

Sandro Barbosa de Oliveira ◽

Carlos Wellington Passos Goncalves ◽

Sheila Marques Denucci ◽

Roberta Monteiro Pereira ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Inhibitory Control ◽

College Education ◽

Healthy Adults ◽

Finger Tapping ◽

Dominant Hand ◽

Motor Inhibition ◽

Finger Movements ◽

Diagnostic Significance ◽

Finger Tapping Test ◽

Study Participants

Abstract Objective: Selective motor inhibition is known to decline with age. The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency of failures at inhibitory control of adjacent finger movements while performing a repetitive finger tapping task in young, middle-aged and older adults. Potential education and sex effects were also evaluated. Methods: Kinematic recordings of adjacent finger movements were obtained on 107 healthy adults (ages 20–80) while they performed a modified version of the Halstead Finger Tapping Test (HTFF). Study participants were instructed to inhibit all finger movements while tapping with the index finger. Results: Inability to inhibit adjacent finger movements while performing the task was infrequent in young adults (2.9% of individuals between 20 and 39 years of age) but increased with age (23.3% between the ages of 40 and 59; 31.0% between ages 60 and 80). Females and males did not differ in their inability to inhibit adjacent finger movements, but individuals with a college education showed a lower frequency of failure to inhibit adjacent finger movements (10.3%) compared to those with a high school education (28.6%). These findings were statistically significant only for the dominant hand. Conclusion: Selective motor inhibition failures are most common in the dominant hand and occur primarily in older healthy adults while performing the modified version of the HFTT. Monitoring selective motor inhibition failures may have diagnostic significance.

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Nicotine Increases Cerebellar Activity during Finger Tapping

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0084581 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 8 (12) ◽

pp. e84581 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Korey P. Wylie ◽

Jody Tanabe ◽

Laura F. Martin ◽

Narin Wongngamnit ◽

Jason R. Tregellas

Keyword(s):

Finger Tapping

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Force modulation as a source of hand differences in rapid finger tapping

Acta Psychologica ◽

10.1016/0001-6918(87)90047-3 ◽

1987 ◽

Vol 65 (1) ◽

pp. 65-73 ◽

Cited By ~ 22

Author(s):

John I. Todor ◽

Ann L. Smiley-Oyen

Keyword(s):

Finger Tapping ◽

Force Modulation

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Attentional focus modulates automatic finger-tapping movements

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-020-80296-z ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Xilei Zhang ◽

Xingxun Jiang ◽

Xiangyong Yuan ◽

Wenming Zheng

Keyword(s):

Pose Estimation ◽

Attentional Focus ◽

Focus Of Attention ◽

Finger Tapping ◽

Compelling Evidence ◽

Action Sequence ◽

Human Behaviors ◽

Attention System ◽

Innate Capacity ◽

Empirical Foundation

AbstractThe majority of human behaviors are composed of automatic movements (e.g., walking or finger-tapping) which are learned during nurturing and can be performed simultaneously without interfering with other tasks. One critical and yet to be examined assumption is that the attention system has the innate capacity to modulate automatic movements. The present study tests this assumption. Setting no deliberate goals for movement, we required sixteen participants to perform personalized and well-practiced finger-tapping movements in three experiments while focusing their attention on either different component fingers or away from movements. Using cutting-edge pose estimation techniques to quantify tapping trajectory, we showed that attention to movement can disrupt movement automaticity, as indicated by decreased inter-finger and inter-trial temporal coherence; facilitate the attended and inhibit the unattended movements in terms of tapping amplitude; and re-organize the action sequence into distinctive patterns according to the focus of attention. These findings demonstrate compelling evidence that attention can modulate automatic movements and provide an empirical foundation for theories based on such modulation in controlling human behavior.

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