Analysis of the Reaction Time and Dominance in Elderly Men: A

Pilot Study

Francesca Campoli

, Vincenzo Bonaiuto

, Lucio Caprioli

, Saeid Edriss

, Emilio Panichi

Michele Panzarino

, Cristian Romagnoli

, Giuseppe Annino

and Elvira Padua

Sports Engineering Lab, Dept. Industrial Eng., Univ. Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy

Dept. of Human Science & Prom. of Quality of Life, San Raffaele Rome Univ., Rome, Italy

Dept. of Medicine Systems, Univ. Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy

Keywords: Elderly Men, Reaction Time, Dominance Limb.

Abstract: The study analyses reaction times in elderly subjects and investigates the reactivity of the dominant and non-

dominant hand and foot. 20 men (73.3 ± 3.1 years), healthy, free from injury and without any physical problem

that could affect the test results. The tests are the baseline reaction times, the plate tapping test and foot tapping

test. Descriptive statistical procedures are presented as mean ± SD and the percentage changes (Δ%) were

calculated for each test. The significance level was P<0.05. In baseline reaction time test, the non-dominant

hand showed a shorter reaction time than the dominant hand of about 28 msec (p = 0.05). In the plate tapping

test, on the other hand, the dominant hand was more reactive than the non-dominant hand (7%, p = 0.002). In

the foot test, the difference between the dominant and non-dominant feet was 3% (p = 0.1). The difference in

performance between the tests performed could be due to the difficulty of the required motor task. The study

lays the foundation for developing a motor work protocol focused on reactivity, a motor ability that

physiologically degenerates with age and is of fundamental importance for the individual's physical and

cognitive well-being.

1 INTRODUCTION

Reactivity is a useful measure to define how quickly

an organism can respond to a particular stimulus,

specifically the reaction time is defined as the time

interval between the moment in which the brain

represents a sensory stimulus and the moment in

which the subsequent behavioral response takes place

(Welford AT, 1980). In fact, reactivity has been

extensively studied as its practical implications can

have a great consequence, at any age.

Many factors have been shown to influence

reaction times, such as age, gender, left or right hand,

https://orcid.org/0009-0004-1342-5881

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2328-4793

https://orcid.org/0009-0005-4049-5225

https://orcid.org/0009-0000-0224-8294

https://orcid.org/0009-0003-6591-1147

https://orcid.org/0009-0009-0572-1206

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0904-634X

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8578-6046

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5227-2567

physical fitness, fatigue, distraction, breathing cycle,

type of stimulus and the decline in processing speed

are some of the hypotheses formulated to explain the

changes observed in reaction times at different ages

(Hultsch DF. et al, 2002; Adam JJ et al, 1999).

Adult human reaction times in response to simple

tasks slow with age at a rate of 2–6 ms per decade

(Fozard JL et al, 1994; Gottsdanker R, 1982). Simple

reaction time shortens from infancy into the late 20s,

then increases slowly until the 50s and 60s, and then

lengthens faster as the person gets into his 70s and

beyond (Jevas and Yan, 2001; Rose et al., 2002).

Luchies et al. (2002) also reported that this age effect

was more marked for complex reaction time tasks.

158

Campoli, F., Bonaiuto, V., Caprioli, L., Edriss, S., Panichi, E., Panzarino, M., Romagnoli, C., Annino, G. and Padua, E.

Analysis of the Reaction Time and Dominance in Elderly Men: A Pilot Study.

DOI: 10.5220/0012186300003587

In Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Sport Sciences Research and Technology Support (icSPORTS 2023), pages 158-161

ISBN: 978-989-758-673-6; ISSN: 2184-3201

In an experiment using a computer mouse, Peters

and Ivanoff (1999) found that right-handed people

were faster with their right hand (as expected), but

left-handed people were equally fast with both hands.

The preferred hand was generally faster.

As age increases, problems in cognitive abilities

also increase, such as divided attention, memory

decline, etc. (Lu et al, 2017). Dementia and other

diseases with cognitive impairment have become a

major global problem as the number of older adults

increases and they affects individual quality of life

(Bruce et al, 2014). Reaction time is related to

cognitive functions (Christ B.U et al, 2018; Chen K

et al, 2017). A study by Phillips et al. (2013) found

that patients with mild cognitive impairment and

Alzheimer's disease had significantly longer reaction

times than normal aging control groups. MacDonald

et al. (2008) found that reaction time variability in

older adults was usually associated with slower

reaction times and worse recognition of stimuli, and

suggested that variability might be a useful measure

of general neural integrity.

The hemispheres of the cerebrum are specialized

for different tasks. The left hemisphere is regarded as

the verbal and logical brain, and the right hemisphere

is thought to govern creativity, spatial relations, face

recognition, and emotions, among other things. Also,

the right hemisphere controls the left hand, and the

left hemisphere controls the right hand. This has made

researchers think that the left hand should be faster at

reaction times involving spatial relationships (such as

pointing at a target). The results of Boulinquez and

Bartélémy (2000) and Bartélémy and Boulinquez

(2001 and 2002) all supported this idea.

The present study aims to demonstrate this

hypothesis by relating it to the motor task in the

elderly over 70 years old and it want to establish a

starting and reference point on reaction times in

elderly subjects in order to then be able to intervene

on the ideal motor activity to be performed in elderly

Moreover the study wants to investigate the motor

behavior recorded in different tasks, simple reaction

and frequency of movement in upper and lower limbs.

2 METHODS

2.1 Sample

20 elderly men (73.3 ± 3.1 years), healthy, free from

injury and without any physical problem that could

affect the test results. Subjects with a history of

balance deficits, neurologic disorders or

musculoskeletal injury were excluded from the study.

Nineteen men have a dominance on both right

hand and foot; just one of them has a dominance to

the other side both on his hand and foot.

Written informed consent was obtained from all

the participants after familiarization and explanation

of the benefit and risks involved in the procedures of

this study. All participants were informed about the

study protocol and gave their informed consent to

participate and they were informed that they were free

to withdraw from the study at any time without

penalty. This study was approved by the Internal

Research Board of the University of Rome "Tor

Vergata".

2.2 Assessment

Baseline Reaction Times Test

The test, performed with the Norway ergotest Muscle

Lab, consists of a succession of 5 green stimuli

(diameter 6-8 cm.) displayed in the centre of the PC

monitor. The background is black. No focus point is

ever given to the subjects in order to assess their

ability to detect the signal without the help of cues.

The subject is required to press the space key on the

computer keyboard in response to the presentation of

a stimulus. In all tests, responses given in under 180

ms, which according to the literature is the threshold

for a simple visual reaction, were not accepted as

correct as there would be insufficient time to organize

a response and reaction. Instead, these are considered

anticipated responses, that is, as action initiated

before the appearance of the stimulus. If the subject

fails to respond, the stimulus disappears from the

screen after 6 s. The disappearance of a stimulus is

followed by an interval which varies according to a

fixed sequence between 0.8 and 2.5 s. The test is

preceded by 6 practice trials in which the program

indicates whenever an error is made so as to facilitate

learning by trial and error. At the end of the test, the

program provides the single response times. The

number of anticipated responses and omissions and

the results of the test trials are memorized on

computer and may be printed as required (De Danti et

al. 1998).

Plate Tapping Test

Each subject was asked to touch two clips (diameter

of 3 cm) as quickly as possible to the right and left on

a desk. The test is performed by the dominant hand

(DH) and the non-dominant hand (NDH) and a 10-

second test is performed three times with each hand

and the best result is recorded (Eurofit, 1988).

Analysis of the Reaction Time and Dominance in Elderly Men: A Pilot Study

159

Foot Tapping Test

The subjects sitting on a chair must touch with their

feet as quickly as possible the right and left part of the

floor bordered by a central line.

The test performed three times with each foot and

the best result is recorded in 10 seconds (Eurofit,

1988).

2.3 Statistical Analysis

The results are expressed as mean ± SD. Preliminary

assumption testing was conducted to check for

normality, linearity, univariate and multivariate

outliers, homogeneity of variance-covariance

matrices, and multicollinearity. Paired t-test were

performed to assess the significance of differences.

The corresponding P values are provided for each

analysis. The value of statistical significance was

accepted with P<0.05. IBM - SPSS 20.0 for Windows

(SPSS, Inc. Chicago. IL, USA) was used for

statistical analysis.

3 RESULTS

Results for each test are presented in table 1.

Table 1: Data are mean ± SD.

In baseline reaction time test (figure 1), the non-

dominant hand performs a lower reaction time than

the dominant hand of about 28 msec (∆10%, p=0.05).

In the plate tapping test, on the other hand, the

dominant hand is more reactive than the non-

dominant hand ((∆7%, p = 0.002).

In the foot test, the difference between the

dominant and non-dominant feet is 3% not

statistically significant (p = 0.1).

4 CONCLUSIONS

The study represents a valid starting point to carry out

further studies on a larger sample and to place the

difference between men and women.

this exploratory study aimed to quantify the

reaction times of a representation of the elderly

population in order to then be able to adapt and

propose an ad hoc motor activity protocol focused on

reactivity, a declining ability in this age group.

The difference in performance between the

performed tests could be due to the difficulty of the

required motor task. In the reaction time test, motor

participation is reduced to the hand portion only,

while the tapping tests, hand and foot, involve a larger

body compartment in which more aspects converge,

not just fully reactive.

It would be also interesting going through what

the dominance value could induce by looking at a

larger sample of people with a left hand/foot

dominance in order to reinforce Peters and Ivanoff’s

study.

Moreover, it’s really important to keep ongoing

with that theory by thinking of other aspects: gender,

physical activity level, frequency of movement

including other tasks and cognitive diseases.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors are grateful to the organization the

organization ANCS (Accademia Nazionale di

Cultura Sportiva) for recruiting the sample.

REFERENCES

Adam JJ, Paas FG, Buekers MJ, Wuyts IJ, Spijkers WA,

Wallmeyer P. Gender differences in choice reaction

time: Evidence for differential strategies.

Ergonomics. 1999

Barthélémy, S., and P. Boulinguez. 2002. Orienting

visuospatial attention generates manual reaction time

asymmetries in target detection and pointing.

Behavioral Brain Research 133(1): 109-116.

Botwinick, J. 1966. Cautiousness in advanced age. Journal

of Gerontology 21: 347-353.

Boulinguez. P. and S. Barthélémy. 2000. Influence of the

movement parameter to be controlled on manual RT

asymmetries in righthanders. Brain and Cognition

44(3): 653-661.

De Tanti, A; Inzaghi, M G; Bonelli, G; Mancuso, M; et al.

Normative data of the MIDA battery for the evaluation

of reaction times. Europa Medicophysica; Turin Vol.

34, Fasc. 4, (Dec 1998): 211.

Eurofit, (1988) European Tests of Physical Fitness. Rome.

Italy: Council of Europe, Committee for the

Development of Sport

Hultsch David F., MacDonald Stuart W. S., Dixon Roger

A. Variability in reaction time performance of younger

and older adults. The Journals of Gerontology: Series

B, Volume 57, Issue 2, 1 March 2002.

dominant limb non-dominant limb Δ p

Reaction time test (sec) 0.277 ± 0.07 0.249 ± 0.02 10% 0.05

Plate tapping test (taps) 31.20 ± 6.00 29.06 ± 6.00 7% 0.002

Foot tapping test (taps) 30.00 ± 4.90 29.00 ± 4.50 3% 0.1

icSPORTS 2023 - 11th International Conference on Sport Sciences Research and Technology Support

160

Jevas, S. and J. H. Yan. 2001. The effect of aging on

cognitive function: a preliminary quantitative review.

Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport 72: A-49.

Lajoie, Y. and S. P. Gallagher. 2004. Predicting falls within

the elderly community: comparison of postural sway,

reaction time, the Berg balance scale and the Activities-

specific Balance Confidence (ABC) scale for

comparing fallers and non-fallers. Archives of

Gerontology and Geriatrics 38(1): 11-25.

Luchies, C. W., J. Schiffman, L. G. Richards, M. R.

Thompson, D. Bazuin, and A. J. DeYoung. 2002.

Effects of age, step direction, and reaction condition on

the ability to step quickly. The Journals of Gerontology,

Series A 57(4): M246.

Myerson, J. S. Robertson, and S. Hale. 2007. Aging and

intraindiviual variability in performance: Analysis of

response time distributions. Journal of the

Experimental Analysis of Behaviour 88(3): 319-337

Noble, C. E., B. L. Baker, and T. A. Jones. 1964. Age and

sex parameters in psychomotor learning. Perceptual

and Motor Skills 19: 935-945.

Peters, M. and J. Ivanoff. 1999. Performance asymmetries

in computer mouse control of right-handers, and left

handers with left- and righthanded mouse experience.

Journal of Motor Behaviour 31(1): 86-94.

Redfern, M. S., M. Muller, J. R. Jennings, J. M. Furman.

2002. Attentional dynamics in postural control during

perturbations in young and older adults. The Journals

of Gerontology, Series A 57(8): B298.

Rose, S. A., J. F. Feldman, J. J. Jankowski, and D. M. Caro.

2002. A longitudinal study of visual expectation and

reaction time in the first year of life. Child Development

73(1): 47.

Welford AT. Choice reaction time: Basic concepts. In:

Welford AT, editor. Reaction Times. New York:

Academic Press; 1980

Fozard JL, Vercryssen M, Reynolds SL, Hancock PA,

Quilter RE. Age differences and changes in reaction

time: the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging. J

Gerontol 49: P179–P189, 1994.

Gottsdanker R. Age and simple reaction time. J Gerontol

37: 342– 348, 1982.

Bruce, W.; Rafik, G.; Frank, K.; Mihaela, P.; Alex, M.

Design of Games for Measurement of Cognitive

Impairment. In Proceedings of the IEEE-EMBS

International Conference on Biomedical and Health

Informatics (BHI), Valencia, Spain, 1–4 June 2014.

Lu, M.-H.; Lin, W.; Yueh, H.-P. Development and

Evaluation of a Cognitive Training Game for Older

People: A Design-based Approach. Front.

Psychol. 2017

Christ, B.U.; Combrinck, M.I.; Thomas, K.G.F. Thomas

Both Reaction Time and Accuracy Measures of

Intraindividual Variability Predict Cognitive

Performance in Alzheimer’s Disease. Front. Hum.

Neurosci. 2018.

Chen, K.; Weng, C.; Hsiao, S.; Tsao, W.; Koo, M.

Cognitive decline and slower reaction time in elderly

individuals with mild cognitive impairment. Jpn.

Psychogeriatr. Soc. 2017

Phillips, M.; Rogers, P.; Haworth, J.; Bayer, A.; Tales, A.

Intra-Individual Reaction Time Variability in Mild

Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s Disease:

Gender, Processing Load and Speed Factors. PLoS

ONE 2013.

Analysis of the Reaction Time and Dominance in Elderly Men: A Pilot Study

161