Drawing direction effect on a task’s performance characteristics among people with essential tremor

Essential tremor (ET) is a common movement disorder affecting the performance of various daily tasks, including drawing. While spiral-drawing task characteristics have been described among patients with ET, research about the significance of the drawing direction of both spiral and lines tasks on the performance process is scarce. This study mapped inter-group differences between people with ET and controls related to drawing directions and the intra-effect of the drawing directions on the tremor level among people with ET. Twenty participants with ET and eighteen without ET drew spirals and vertical and horizontal lines on a digitizer with an inking pen. Time-based outcome measures were gathered to address the effect of the drawing directions on tremor by analyzing various spiral sections and comparing vertical and horizontal lines. Significant group differences were found in deviation of the spiral radius from a filtered radius curve and in deviation of the distance curve from a filtered curve for both line types. Significant differences were found between defined horizontal and vertical spiral sections within each group and between both line types within the ET group. A significant correlation was found between spiral and vertical line deviations from filtered curve outcome measures. Achieving objective measures about the significance of drawing directions on actual performance may support the clinical evaluation of people with ET toward developing future intervention methods for improving their functional abilities.