The effect of fidget spinners on fine motor control

Quantification of hand functional recovery in spinal cord injury patients

STUDY DESIGN

A prospective cohort study.

OBJECTIVES

To examine the use of a circle-tracing task in quantifying hand functional recovery in cervical spinal cord injury patients.

METHODS

Ten cervical spinal cord injury (SCI) patients and 10 healthy age-matched controls performed a circle-tracing task, using a computerized tablet at the beginning of the study and after 4 weeks. Data relative to performance accuracy as well as pen pressure throughout the performances were collected, and clinical assessment for all patients was performed at the beginning and at the end of the study.

RESULTS

Significant differences were found in pen pressure profiles in the SCI patients between the initial assessment and after 4 weeks of assessment. SCI patients, when compared with controls, apply less pressure during the execution, though no significant differences were found for the other parameters. Examination of pen pressure profiles of both controls and SCI patients reveals that, in addition to the lower pressure registered, SCI patients present a more oscillating pressure profile which is direction-dependent. No significant correlations were found between clinical assessments and pen pressure, both within the initial assessment as well as after 4 weeks.

CONCLUSIONS

This study emphasizes the potential of simple computerized means for quantifying upper limb functions in SCI patients. These results of this study could be helpful for both highlighting specific functional deficits in patients as well tailoring specific interventions.

Cortico-striatal activity associated with fidget spinner use: an fMRI study

Fidget spinners are said to be a very successful toy, and it's said that it has a good impact on attention for children with ADHD and hand motor control. However, there is limited scientific evidence to support these claims, and there is a lack of data on neurobiological responses to rotating fidget spinners. To better understand the mechanism whereby fidget spinners affect motor behavior, we tried to identify the neural correlates of rotating fidget spinners using functional magnetic resonance imaging and non-magnetic fidget spinners with five types of ease of rotation. As a result, we confirmed that the pre/postcentral gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, supplementary motor area (SMA), cerebellum, and striatum are activated when rotating spinners. Furthermore, the SMA was activated more with easier-to-rotate spinners. Additionally, a psychophysiological interaction analysis revealed increased functional connectivity between the SMA and the caudate while rotating fidget spinners compared to just holding them. These results suggest that the fine motor control associate with spinning a fidget spinner is supported by the cortico-striatal circuits involved in planning and reward.

Comparison of Fidgeting in Adolescents with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Between Before and After Stimulant Medication Intake

Objective: Fidgeting is a common symptom in patients with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The current study investigated ADHD stimulant medication effects on fidgeting in adolescents with ADHD during a short research study session using wrist-worn accelerometers. Method: Adolescents with ADHD who had been taking stimulant medications (ADHD group) and adolescents without ADHD (control group) participated in the study. Accelerometer data were obtained from both wrists of each participant to track their hand movements during two hearing testing sessions. All subjects in the ADHD group abstained from their stimulant medications for at least 24 hours before their first session (off-med session). The second session (on-med session) was conducted about 60-90 minutes after medication intake. The control group participated in two sessions in a similar time frame. Results: The current study focuses on relationships between hand movements and stimulant medication in adolescents with ADHD. Both conditions were compared to evaluate the relationship of hand movements and stimulant medication. We hypothesized the ADHD group will exhibit less hand movements during the on-medication session in comparison to off-medication session. Conclusion: Wrist-worn accelerometer measures obtained during nonphysical tasks in a short duration may not provide hand movement differences between on-med and off-med conditions in adolescents with ADHD. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04577417.

Crosstalk between Gross and Fine Motor Domains during Late Childhood: The Influence of Gross Motor Training on Fine Motor Performances in Primary School Children

Gross and fine motor competence have a close relationship during development and are shown to correlate to some extent. However, the study of the interaction between these domains still requires further insights. In this study, we investigated the developmental changes in overall motor skills as well as the effects of gross motor training programs on fine motor skills in children (aged 6–11, n = 240). Fine motor skills were assessed before and after gross motor intervention using the Box and Block Test. The gross motor intervention was based on the Test of Gross Motor Development—3rd Edition. Results showed that gross and fine motor skills correlate across all years of primary school, both significantly improving with age. Finally, the gross motor intervention appeared to not influence fine motor skills. Our findings show that during primary school age, overall motor development is continuous, but non-linear. From age nine onward, there seems to be a major step-up in overall motor competence, of which teachers/educators should be aware of in order to design motor educational programs accordingly. While gross and fine motor domains might be functionally integrated to enhance children’s motor performances, further research is needed to clarify the effect of gross motor practice on fine motor performances.

An Inertial Measurement Unit-Based Wireless System for Shoulder Motion Assessment in Patients with Cervical Spinal Cord Injury: A Validation Pilot Study in a Clinical Setting

Residual motion of upper limbs in individuals who experienced cervical spinal cord injury (CSCI) is vital to achieve functional independence. Several interventions were developed to restore shoulder range of motion (ROM) in CSCI patients. However, shoulder ROM assessment in clinical practice is commonly limited to use of a simple goniometer. Conventional goniometric measurements are operator-dependent and require significant time and effort. Therefore, innovative technology for supporting medical personnel in objectively and reliably measuring the efficacy of treatments for shoulder ROM in CSCI patients would be extremely desirable. This study evaluated the validity of a customized wireless wearable sensors (Inertial Measurement Units-IMUs) system for shoulder ROM assessment in CSCI patients in clinical setting. Eight CSCI patients and eight healthy controls performed four shoulder movements (forward flexion, abduction, and internal and external rotation) with dominant arm. Every movement was evaluated with a goniometer by different testers and with the IMU system at the same time. Validity was evaluated by comparing IMUs and goniometer measurements using Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) and Limits of Agreement (LOA). inter-tester reliability of IMUs and goniometer measurements was also investigated. Preliminary results provide essential information on the accuracy of the proposed wireless wearable sensors system in acquiring objective measurements of the shoulder movements in CSCI patients.

Assessing the Development of Fine Motor Control in Elementary School Children Using Drawing and Tracing Tasks

Adequately quantifying fine motor control is imperative for understanding individual motor behavior development and mastery. We recently showed that using different tasks to evaluate fine motor control may produce different results, suggesting that multiple measures for fine motor control may be evaluating different skills and/or underlying processes. Specifically, drawing behavior may depend on internal cueing, whereas tracing depends more on external cueing. To better understand how an individual develops a certain preference for cueing, we evaluated fine motor control in 265 typically developing children (aged 6-11) by measuring their accuracy for both drawing and tracing a circle. Our results first confirmed that there was no significant correlation between tracing and drawing task performances during this phase of development and, secondly, showed a significant developmental improvement in tracing, especially between 2nd and 3rd graders, whereas drawing ability improved only moderately. We discuss the potential roles of attentional focus and cognitive development as possible influencing factors for these developmental patterns. We conclude that using both a drawing and tracing task to evaluate fine motor control is rapid, economic and valuable for monitoring motor development among elementary school children.

Precision in drawing and tracing tasks: Different measures for different aspects of fine motor control

Drawing and tracing tasks, by being relatively easy to execute and evaluate, have been incorporated in many paradigms used to study motor control. While these tasks are helpful when examining various aspects relative to the performance, the relationship in proficiency between these tasks was not evaluated to our knowledge. Seeing that drawing is thought to be an internally cued and tracing an externally cued task, differences in performances are to be expected. In this study, a quantitative evaluation of the precision of circle drawing and tracing, and spiral tracing was made on 150 healthy subjects. Our results show that, while precision is correlated when repeating drawing circles, tracing spirals, or tracing circles as well as between tracing spirals and tracing circles; there is no correlation when subjects performed drawing circles and tracing spirals or between drawing and tracing of circles. These results suggest that this lack of correlation is task dependent and not shape dependent. We suggest that the evaluation of fine motor control should include both a tracing and a drawing task, taking in consideration the precision in each task. We believe that this approach could help not only to evaluate fine motor control more accurately, but also to identify subjects who are more reliant on either internal or external cueing and to what extent.