Adults With Down Syndrome Performed Continuous Bimanual Drumming Faster Than Unimanual Drumming

The aim of this study was to examine how music cues affect drumming performance in unimanual and bimanual movements in persons with DS and to compare music with other types of timing cues. Twenty persons with Down syndrome (DS), 20 mental age-matched (MA), and 20 chronological age-matched (CA) participants hit one or two drum(s) with their hand(s) for 12 s while following 1 Hz pacing cues. There were four cue types: music (e.g., a tune with various decibel drum beats), rhythm (e.g., sound of drumbeat), verbal (e.g., computer saying “drum”), and visual (e.g., video of one or both hand(s) moving up and down to hit the drum). The results showed that, compared to the MA and CA groups, persons with DS made faster drumming movements across all cue types. Across all groups, bimanual movements were performed faster than unimanual movements. These findings suggest that unimanual and bimanual tasks are distinct movements for all groups. Furthermore visual instructions produced the largest movements; however, this was most evident in the CA group. Our results were interpreted with respect to theories of cerebral specialization, group, cue, and task differences.