Hand-movement control can be used as a parameter to assess the severity of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), says a new research by scientists from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore.
Researchers noted that kids with ADHD had extra movements. Using sequential finger-tapping experiments on youngsters, the researchers observed that these "overflow" movements were twice the amount as seen in normal youngsters.
The study involved 50 right-handed children ages 8 to 13. Half of them had ADHD, while the other half did not. The finger-tapping movements of these kids were recorded with a video and electronic finger positioning device that measured "excessive mirror overflow." It was found that boys with ADHD had nearly 4 times the excess overflow as compared with normal boys. This variation was not seen in girls.
"We now have a real, quantifiable measure of a problem with controlling behavior in these children," said Dr. Stewart Mostofsky, senior author of the finger-tapping study.
The study appears in the February 15 print issue of the journal Neurology.