Abstract
Parkinson's disease (PD) affects multiple, dissociable stages of motor and cognitive control. This study investigates whether passively collected keystroke dynamics can distinguish two of these stages: error monitoring (noticing a self-generated error) versus motor restart (recovering normal motor rhythm afterward).
Using backspace events as naturally occurring error-correction episodes from the public neuroQWERTY MIT-CSXPD dataset, which includes 57 subjects with sufficient backspace data (27 with PD and UPDRS-III scores), we found no evidence that pre-error keystroke instability differs by disease severity ($r=0.164$, $p=0.413$). However, strong evidence indicates that post-error recovery time does differ, modeled as a continuous accelerated failure time (AFT) survival outcome ($p<0.001$).
Conclusion
This study reveals the distinction between error monitoring and motor restart in Parkinson's patients when faced with typing errors, highlighting key points for clinical assessment and intervention.
Blogger's Review: This research offers deep insights into the complexities of motor control in Parkinson's disease through an analysis of keystroke dynamics. It emphasizes the potential of survival analysis in cognitive and motor behavior studies, providing a fresh perspective on how the nervous system handles errors, warranting further exploration.