Nondominant hand performance of the Japanese Trail Making Test and its mirror version.

OBJECTIVES

To investigate intermanual differences in the Japanese version of the Trail Making Test (JTMT) and to investigate whether a mirror version of the JTMT test sheet (JTMT-M) should be used when the task is performed with the nondominant hand.

DESIGN

Intermanual differences were compared among the JTMT with the dominant hand, the JTMT with the nondominant hand, and the JTMT-M with the nondominant hand.

SETTING

Rehabilitation center in a university hospital.

PARTICIPANTS

A total of 150 persons (age range, 19-38y) who had no history of neurologic or musculoskeletal impairment.

INTERVENTIONS: Not applicable.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: The time to complete the task.

RESULTS

Nondominant hand performance on the JTMT and JTMT-M did not differ significantly from that of the dominant hand on the JTMT. All left hand data except 1 in each task were within the previously reported reference values obtained from the JTMT with the right hand.

CONCLUSIONS

The nondominant hand can be used as an alternative in the JTMT and can be expected to perform comparably to the dominant hand. There is no need to use the JTMT-M even when the task is conducted with the nondominant hand.