Article

OBJECTIVE: To compare the performance of people with Parkinson's disease (PD) and
unimpaired participants on a timed dexterity task and to examine the effects of adding a secondary task.
DESIGN: A repeated measures analysis of performance for
the 2 groups under unitask and dual-task conditions. SETTING: All tests were
conducted in a human movement laboratory. PARTICIPANTS: People with idiopathic PD
(n=22) and age-matched and sex-matched comparisons (n=22) volunteered for the
study. INTERVENTIONS: Not applicable, although a verbal-cognitive secondary task
was used. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The number of pegs placed in the Purdue Pegboard
in 30 seconds, the number of correct verbal responses for the secondary task,
scores on the Manual Ability Measure-16 test of hand function and, for the group
with PD, ratings on the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale. RESULTS: For
the pegboard task, people with PD had reduced dexterity (t=-5.289; P<.001)
compared with the unimpaired group. When the secondary task was added, both
groups placed fewer pegs (F(1,42)=.652; P=.42). There were no differences between
groups in scores for the subtraction task performed alone, but when this activity
was carried out with the Purdue Pegboard Test, the number of correct responses
declined only in the PD group (F(1,42)=4.90; P=.032). CONCLUSIONS: Manual
dexterity was compromised in this group of people with mild-moderate PD when
compared with an unimpaired group. When the concurrent verbal-cognitive task was
added, dual-task interference occurred in both groups but to a greater extent in
people with PD.

Langue : ANGLAIS