Data Sheet 1_Longitudinal changes in hand dominance and manual dexterity in normal aging and mild cognitive impairment (MCI): a kinematic study.docx

At present, no longitudinal research on this issue is available.</p>Methods<p>To address this research gap, we conducted a detailed kinematic analysis of unimanual movements of the dominant and non-dominant hands in 16 patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) (M age = 69.3 yrs) and 20 healthy controls (HC) (M age = 69.9 yrs) at two points in time with an averaged time interval of 4.5 years between evaluations (3.5 yrs. for HC; 5.35 yrs. for MCI).

The inserting pins task from the Purdue Pegboard Test was recorded with a 2D motion capture system (Vicon Motus). Linear and angular velocities, as well as path length together with their coefficients of variation were calculated for specific actions (i.e., reaching, grasping, transport and inserting) and laterality indices (LI) were computed.</p>Results<p>At time 1, only MCI patients displayed symmetric movements. At time 2, no group differences in LIs were observed as the HC group also developed symmetric hand dominance while MCIs preserved symmetric hand dominance.