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  • Normative References for Graphomotor and Latency Digital Clock Drawing Metrics for Adults Age 55 and Older: Operationalizing the Production of a Normal Appearing Clock
Title: Normative References for Graphomotor and Latency Digital Clock Drawing Metrics for Adults Age 55 and Older: Operationalizing the Production of a Normal Appearing Clock
Background: Relative to the abundance of publications on dementia and clock drawing, there is limited literature operationalizing ‘normal’ clock production. Objective: To operationalize subtle behavioral patterns seen in normal digital clock drawing to command and copy conditions. Methods: From two research cohorts of cognitively-well participants age 55 plus who completed digital clock drawing to command and copy conditions (n = 430), we examined variables operationalizing clock face construction, digit placement, clock hand construction, and a variety of time-based, latency measures. Data are stratified by age, education, handedness, and number anchoring. Results: Normative data are provided in supplementary tables. Typical errors reported in clock research with dementia were largely absent. Adults age 55 plus produce symmetric clock faces with one stroke, with minimal overshoot and digit misplacement, and hands with expected hour hand to minute hand ratio. Data suggest digitally acquired graphomotor and latency differences based on handedness, age, education, and anchoring. Conclusion: Data provide useful benchmarks from which to assess digital clock drawing performance in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1750192
PAR ID:
10314832
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Journal of Alzheimer's Disease
Volume:
82
Issue:
1
ISSN:
1387-2877
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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    Bondi, Mark (Ed.)
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  2. ; ; ; ; ; ; (, 2020 42nd Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society (EMBC))
    null (Ed.)
    The Clock Drawing Test, where the participant is asked to draw a clock from memory and copy a model clock, is widely used for screening of cognitive impairment. The digital version of the clock test, the digital clock drawing test (dCDT), employs accelerometer and pressure sensors of a digital pen to capture time and pressure information from a participant's performance in a granular digital format. While visual features of the clock drawing test have previously been studied, little is known about the relationship between demographic and cognitive impairment characteristics with dCDT latency and graphomotor features. Here, we examine dCDT feature clusters with respect to sociodemographic and cognitive impairment outcomes. Our results show that the clusters are not significantly different in terms of age and gender, but did significantly differ in terms of education, Mini-Mental State Exam scores, and cognitive impairment diagnoses.This study shows that features extracted from digital clock drawings can provide important information regarding cognitive reserve and cognitive impairments. 
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