A wearable ring-shaped inertial system to identify action planning impairments during reach-to-grasp sequences: a pilot study.
Erika Rovini, Guenda Galperti, Valeria Manera and 5 others
PMID 34315497WHAT IT FOUND
People with dysexecutive mild cognitive impairment moved slower and adjusted their grip less when planning different tasks compared to healthy controls.
A wearable finger ring captured these differences, but the study is too small to confirm it works as a diagnostic tool.
Key findings
01Participants with dysexecutive mild cognitive impairment showed slower peak velocities and longer deceleration phases during reach-to-grasp tasks compared to healthy controls.
02Healthy controls modulated their movement kinematics differently depending on whether they were drinking, placing, or passing an object, whereas participants with dysexecutive mild cognitive impairment did not show this adjustment.
03Kinematic parameters such as peak velocity and movement variability correlated with scores on the Mini-Mental State Examination, suggesting a link between motor performance and cognitive status.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The study is a pilot with a very small sample size (18 participants total), limiting the generalizability of the findings. The two groups were not age-matched; the d-MND group was significantly older (mean age 75.7 years) than the healthy controls (mean age 63.7 years), which confounds the motor differences as aging itself affects movement speed and planning. The 'drinking' task was a simulation rather than actual drinking, which may have altered natural kinematics. The device and analysis methods are novel and have not been validated for clinical diagnosis in larger, diverse populations. The study did not blind the assessors to the diagnosis, which could introduce bias in participant instruction or data interpretation.
Declared interests
The authors did not declare specific conflicts of interest regarding the device manufacturer. The study was funded by the European Union - FESR o FSE, PON Research and Innovation 2014-2020.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the motor differences as purely due to cognitive impairment, because the group with cognitive decline was also significantly older than the healthy control group. Age-related slowing of movement is a known confounder here, and the small sample size means these specific kinematic markers are not yet validated for clinical diagnosis.