Your typing could reveal an early warning sign of Parkinson’s disease

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(Ellen Scott/ Metro) — The speed at which you type could be a warning sign of Parkinson’s, suggests new research which found that the time it takes for someone to press different keys can indicate that they have hand tremors, a common sign of the disease.

Researchers from Charles Sturt University in Queensland analysed 76 people, 27 of whom had mild Parkinson’s disease.

Over nine months a program was added to the participants computer keyboards to track how long it took them to press the keys.

Researchers found they were able to use people’s typing speed to diagnose mild Parkinson’s with 78% accuracy by comparing their typing against the standard frequency of a Parkinson’s patient’s hand tremor, which is between 4Hz and 6Hz. They now hope that this research can be used to create a diagnostic tool based around typing. (…)

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