A master thesis from Aalborg University
Performance of manual dexterity is deteriorated by acute experimental pain when performed in a combination with a demanding cognitive task
Author(s)
Term
4. semester
Education
Publication year
2019
Submitted on
2019-06-05
Pages
15 pages
Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of acute pain on performance of a manual dexterity task completed alone or a combination with a demanding cognitive task. Performance of the manual dexterity task was measured as the time to complete a grooved pegboard task and the times to manipulate each peg during the selection, transport, insertion, and return phases. Twentytwo young adults (24.1 ± 2.0 years) went through a crossover design, where every participant underwent each condition in a randomized order. The grooved pegboard task was used to evaluate whether simultaneously providing; nothing (Peg), pain (PegPain), a cognitive interference task (PegSub), or a combination of both (PegPainSub) would affect pegboard performance. The cognitive task consisted of continuous subtractions of seven. No differences in pegboard completion time between Peg and PegPain was found. A longer completion time for PegSub and PegPainSub was found compared to Peg and PegPain. PegPainSub had longer pegboard completion times compared to PegSub. This was accounted primary by a longer selection phase duration for PegPainSub compared to PegSub. The results suggest pain had an interfered effect in completion time in a combination with the cognitive interference task compared to no pain. Furthermore, these results revealed that acute pain reduced performance on a manual dexterity task only in a combination with a cognitive task.
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