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. 2022 Feb;26(4):563-572.
doi: 10.1177/10870547211012035. Epub 2021 May 12.

Attention and Motor Learning in Adult Patients with Neurofibromatosis Type 1

Jesminne Castricum  1   2 , Joke H M Tulen  1   2 , Walter Taal  1   2 , André B Rietman  2   3 , Ype Elgersma  1   2
Affiliations

Attention and Motor Learning in Adult Patients with Neurofibromatosis Type 1

Jesminne Castricum et al. J Atten Disord. 2022 Feb.

Abstract

Objective: Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is an autosomal dominant genetic disorder that is associated with cognitive disabilities, including attention and motor learning problems. These disabilities have been extensively studied in children with NF1 but limited studies have been performed in adults.

Method: Attention, motor learning and intellectual performance were studied with neuropsychological tasks in 32 adults with NF1 and 32 controls.

Results: The NF1 and control group performed similarly on attention and motor learning tasks, although controls had shorter reaction times than adults with NF1 during the motor learning task (t[60] = -2.20, p = .03). Measures of attention or motor learning were not significantly associated with reduced intellectual performance in NF1.

Conclusion: In contrast to many studies in children with NF1, our findings did not provide evidence for presence of attention or motor learning problems in adults with NF1 in neuropsychological tasks. Our observations may be of clinical importance to determine treatment focus in adults with NF1.

Keywords: adult; cognition; motor performance; neurofibromatosis type 1; neuropsychological functioning.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Schematic view of the motor skill learning task. The sequential visual isometric pinch task (SVIPT) was displayed on the monitor consisting of colored targets from left to right. Subjects had to move the cursor (arrow) back and forth from the home-box (black rectangle) to the targets in a predetermined order (1-2-3-4-5) by squeezing the transducer.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Sustained attention parameters on the sustained attention dots task (SAD) of the NF1 and control group: (a) The mean series reaction time in seconds ± SEM. There was no significant difference in mean reaction time between the groups (F[2.29, 141.8] = 0.85, p = .44), (b) The mean number of misses ± SEM. There was a nominally significant difference in the number of misses between the groups (F[1, 60] = 3.77, p = .057). There was a significant main effect over the five consecutive periods in time for the number of misses (F[4, 240] = 3.73, p = .006). There were no significant interaction effects.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Motor learning parameters on the sequential visual isometric pinch task (SVIPT) of the NF1 and control group: (a) The mean reaction time ± SEM. There was a significant difference in the slope of the mean reaction time between the groups (t[60] = −2.20, p = .031) (b) The mean error rate ± SEM. There was no significant difference in the slope of the error rate between the groups (t[60] = −1.42, p = .16).
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