Brain Structural-Behavioral Correlates Underlying Grooved Pegboard Test Performance Across Lifespan

Abstract

This study aims to provide the first brain structural-behavioral correlates underlying age differences in Grooved Pegboard Test (GPT) performance after adjusting for gender, education, quality of life, mental health, and anthropometric variables. We report the data of 210 right-handed participants (20- to 80-year old), who underwent behavioral assessments including GPT, Trail Making Test, and stop-signal task. Magnetic resonance images were acquired to investigate the structural-behavioral correlates of age differences in GPT performance. Age differences in GPT performance were positively associated with visuomotor tracking performance and negatively associated with widespread brain structural measures, including white matter tracts (e.g., commissure, radiation, and association fibers) and gray matter regions in frontal and cingulate regions, parietal, and temporal lobes.

Keywords:

• aging
• visuomotor function
• white matter
• gray matter

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the Mind Research and Imaging Center (MRIC), supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan (MOST), at NCKU for consultation and instrument availability.

Disclosure statement

All of the experimental methods in this study were carried out in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and the rule of research in the University and were approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of the National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan to protect the participants’ right. All participants signed the informed consent form before participating in the experiments. We declared the work described has not been published previously, that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, SH, upon reasonable request.

Notes

1 Please note, because all the behavioral measures derived from TMT and SST are RT basis, therefore, their positive correlations with age suggest worse performance with increasing age.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of Taiwan, under grant numbers MOST104-2410-H-006-021-MY2; MOST106-2410-H-006-031-MY2; MOST 108-2321-B-006-022-MY2; MOST 108-2410-H-006-038-MY3.