Influence of Chronotype on Motor Behavior in Healthy Individuals: Analyses of Manual Dexterity in Different Times of the Day

This study investigated the influence of chronotype on motor behavior in a manual dexterity task performed at different times of the day. Sixteen healthy adults of each chronotype (morning, evening, and neither), as measured by the Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire, practiced both conditions of the Grooved Pegboard Test either in the morning or in the afternoon to early evening. The "neither" chronotype (65.12 ± 7.46) was outperformed (ps ≤ .03) by both the morning (56.09 ± 7.21) and evening (58.94 ± 7.53) chronotypes when the task had higher cognitive and motor demand but was not outperformed in the task with lower demand (morning = 18.46 ± 2.11; evening = 19.34 ± 2.79; neither = 21.47 ± 2.54; p > .05). No difference between the morning and evening chronotypes was found at the different times of the day (ps > .05), suggesting that a manual dexterity task is not sufficiently demanding to be influenced by chronotype.