DOES THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN REACTION TIME AND DEXTERITY IN MUSICIANS DIFFERENT ACCORDING TO INSTRUMENT GROUPS?

S. Narin Aral¹, S. Kecelioglu²

¹Dokuz Eylul University Faculty of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation, Department of Orthopedic Physiotherapy, Izmir, Turkey, ²Bandirma Onyedi Eylul University Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Orthopedic Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation, Balikesir-Bandirma, Turkey

Background: Musicians need to have some skills to play their instruments. Reaction time and dexterity are also among the factors affecting the instrument playing performance of musicians and are related to each other. However, the relationship between reaction time and dexterity according to instrument groups is unknown.

Purpose: To investigate whether the relationship between reaction time and dexterity differs according to instrument groups in musicians.

Methods: A total of 97 musicians playing different instruments including wind (n=31), string (n=33) and keyboard (n=33) were included in this study, which was designed as a cross-sectional study. The mean age (year) of the musicians is 20.97±3.09 and the instrument playing time (year) is 9.54±3.63. We evaluated manual dexterity with the Minnesota Manual Dexterity Test (MMDT), finger dexterity with the Purdue Pegboard Test (PPT), and simple reaction time with the Ruler Drop Test (RDT).

Results: In wind instrument players, there was a moderate positive correlation between the RDT and MMDT right-hand placing subtest (p=0.005, r=0.490), a strong positive correlation between the RDT and MMDT left-hand placing (p=0.004, r=0.506), and MMDT turning subtests (p=0.001, r=0.581), and a strong negative correlation between the RDT and PPT right-hand subtest (p=0.001, r=-0.574). There was only a correlation between RDT and MMDT turning subtest, with a moderate positive correlation in string instrument players (p=0.004, r=0.487) and a strong positive correlation in keyboard instrument players (p=0.002, r=0.512).

Conclusions: The fact that there was a relationship between RDT and all subtests of MMDT in wind instrument players could be explained by the fact that hand positions during evaluations in our study were similar to instrument holding and playing positions in wind instrument players, considering flute and clarinet, which constituted the majority of wind instrument players in our study. The relationship between reaction time and dexterity in musicians playing different instruments might be related to the similarity between the hand positions in evaluations and the holding and playing positions of the instrument being played. In the future, evaluation methods used in physiotherapy and rehabilitation can be modified or new evaluation methods can be developed, specific to the instrument holding and playing positions of musicians.

Implications: In our study, which evaluated the relationship between reaction time and dexterity in musicians according to different instrument groups, it is thought that the similarity between the holding and playing positions of the musicians' instruments and the hand positions in the tests used for evaluation. The evaluation methods used in physiotherapy and rehabilitation may be modified and improved according to other occupational groups. In this case, an appropriate rehabilitation program can be drawn by evaluating the person's skill and function in a more realistic way.

Funding acknowledgements: The authors report no funding

Keywords:
Evaluation
Occupational groups
Rehabilitation

Topics:
Occupational health & ergonomics
Community based rehabilitation

Did this work require ethics approval? Yes

Institution: Dokuz Eylul University

Committee: Dokuz Eylul University Ethics Committee for Non-Interventional Research

Ethics number: Decision number 2019/04-20 and protocol number 4566-GOA