Aging-related Changes in Bimanual Coordination As a Screening Tool for Healthy Aging

The steady increase in the global older adult population highlights critical challenges, including the development of preventive strategies to extend healthy life expectancy and support independence in activities of daily living. Although there is an aging-related reduction in manual dexterity, the difference in bimanual coordination performance between young and older adults remains unclear. We aimed to elucidate the characteristics of bimanual coordination among young, young-old, and old-old adults participants. The participants performed in-phase (tapping the thumb and index finger together as fast as possible) and anti-phase (alternating movement between the left and right fingers) bimanual coordination tasks, and intergroup comparison of the task parameters as performed. The number and frequency of taps significantly decreased sequentially in young, young-old, and old-old adults, whereas the average tap interval significantly increased in this order ( p < 0.05). There was no significant difference between the young-old and old-old groups in the average local maximum distance ( p > 0.05). These findings indicate that bimanual coordination task performance varies depending on specific parameters. Thus, the number, average interval, and frequency of taps are potential indicators of aging-related changes in bimanual coordination.