Hemodynamic and behavioral changes in older adults during cognitively demanding dual tasks

Salzman, Talia; Vallejo, Diana Tobón; Polskaia, Nadia; Michaud, Lucas; St-Amant, Gabrielle; Lajoie, Yves; Fraser, Sarah

doi:10.1002/brb3.2021

Cited by 17 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 65 publications

(151 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…For what concerns the motor assessment, results not only highlight the difficulty in performing a curvilinear task with respect to a linear task, but also that there is a further decrement in the gait performance in the DT condition (Figure 3d-g). Several studies have shown a strong relationship between poor executive functioning and slower gait speed, especially during dual tasks that involve a challenging locomotor component [21,23,32]. In our study, curved walking challenged motor control mechanisms more than straight walking [18]: Along curvilinear trajectories, in fact, healthy young adults reduced their walking speed (Table 2), confirming that human subjects adapt their velocity to the radius of the curvature that they are following, with the velocity that tends to decrease when the trajectory becomes more curved [18,33].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modifications in Prefrontal Cortex Oxygenation in Linear and Curvilinear Dual Task Walking: A Combined fNIRS and IMUs Study

Belluscio

Ferrari

Quaresima

et al. 2021

Sensors

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Increased oxygenated hemoglobin concentration of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) has been observed during linear walking, particularly when there is a high attention demand on the task, like in dual-task (DT) paradigms. Despite the knowledge that cognitive and motor demands depend on the complexity of the motor task, most studies have only focused on usual walking, while little is known for more challenging tasks, such as curved paths. To explore the relationship between cortical activation and gait biomechanics, 20 healthy young adults were asked to perform linear and curvilinear walking trajectories in single-task and DT conditions. PFC activation was assessed using functional near-infrared spectroscopy, while gait quality with four inertial measurement units. The Figure-of-8-Walk-Test was adopted as the curvilinear trajectory, with the “Serial 7s” test as concurrent cognitive task. Results show that walking along curvilinear trajectories in DT led to increased PFC activation and decreased motor performance. Under DT walking, the neural correlates of executive function and gait control tend to be modified in response to the cognitive resources imposed by the motor task. Being more representative of real-life situations, this approach to curved walking has the potential to reveal crucial information and to improve people’ s balance, safety, and life’s quality.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modifications in Prefrontal Cortex Oxygenation in Linear and Curvilinear Dual Task Walking: A Combined fNIRS and IMUs Study

Belluscio

Ferrari

Quaresima

et al. 2021

Sensors

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…24 Furthermore, the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) with scores of 0-30 and Falls E cacy Scale-International (FES-I) with scores of 14-64 were used to assess depression and fear of falls, respectively, 25,26 which can affect the dual-task performance in older adults (i.e., higher scores indicate negative effects). 10 Retrospective falls within 6 months were also collected. The subjects' preferred treadmill walking speed was measured rst by applying an initial speed of 2.0 km/h and adding increments of 0.1 km/h, then by decreasing the speed from 6.5 km/h, which was con rmed with previous ndings.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1,8 The negative effects of aging (motor and cognition) have caused excessive PFC activation, which was compensatory mechanism indicating over-recruitment of cognitive resources and reduced e ciency of PFC. 3,9,10 Furthermore, since aging-related changes in the PFC occur rapidly, 5 we considered that neural mechanisms in dual-task performance may differ between older and younger adults. However, some brain imaging studies have shown less PFC activation in older adults during dual-tasking, with condition factors (overground and treadmill walking set-ups) and age considered as factors possibly causing these con icting ndings.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of treadmill walking on prefrontal cortex activation and dual-task performance in older adults

Baek¹,

Kim²,

Yoo³

2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background Older adults have higher prefrontal cortex (PFC) activation and lower dual-task performance than younger adults because of age-related physical and cognitive functional impairments. Objective To investigate the effect of treadmill walking on PFC activation and dual-task performance in older adults. Methods A total of 20 older adults (mean age, 64.35 ± 2.74 years) and 20 younger adults (mean age, 30.00 ± 3.15 years) performed single- and dual-task walking in overground and treadmill conditions. A wearable functional near-infrared spectroscopy device and gait analyzer were used to analyze PFC activation and dual-task cost (DTC). Results In both groups, treadmill walking demonstrated reduced PFC activation while dual-task walking and reduced DTC compared to overground walking. Furthermore, despite a higher DTC in gait variability, correct response, total response, response index and a higher error score in older adults than in younger adults during overground walking, there was no difference in treadmill walking. The difference in PFC activation between single and dual tasks was also observed only in overground walking. There was no difference in PFC activation between the two age groups. Conclusions Older adults can maintain the similar level of dual-task performance as younger adults in treadmill walking, with PFC activation reduced. However, although older adults recruit PFC level similar to that in younger adults in overground walking, older adults show lower dual-task performance than younger adults due to inefficient use of PFC with aging. This indicates that treadmill and overground walking do not share similar activation patterns during dual-task walking.

show abstract

“…Each cognitive task was programmed in E-Prime software (Psychology Software Tools, Pittsburgh, PA). The cognitive tasks described below have been used in published dual-task studies (Fraser et al, 2016 ; Lajoie et al, 2016 ; St-Amant et al, 2020 ; Salzman et al, 2021 ). Moreover, the discrete tasks were made up of a simple reaction time (SRT) and go/no-go inhibition task (GNG) whereas the continuous tasks were composed of n-back (NBK) and double number sequence (DNS) working memory tasks.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This statistical approach allows us to assess if there are discrete vs. continuous task differences, if there are dual vs. single task differences (i.e., SM vs. DT or SC vs. DT), any hemispheric differences, and if there are any interactions with these factors. In addition, we have applied this approach to a completed study with the exact same design, tasks, and protocols but was conducted with older adults (Salzman et al, 2021 ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An fNIRS Investigation of Discrete and Continuous Cognitive Demands During Dual-Task Walking in Young Adults

Rahman

Polskaia

St-Amant

et al. 2021

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Introduction: Dual-task studies have demonstrated that walking is attention-demanding for younger adults. However, numerous studies have attributed this to task type rather than the amount of required to accomplish the task. This study examined four tasks: two discrete (i.e., short intervals of attention) and two continuous (i.e., sustained attention) to determine whether greater attentional demands result in greater dual-task costs due to an overloaded processing capacity.Methods: Nineteen young adults (21.5 ± 3.6 years, 13 females) completed simple reaction time (SRT) and go/no-go (GNG) discrete cognitive tasks and n-back (NBK) and double number sequence (DNS) continuous cognitive tasks with or without self-paced walking. Prefrontal cerebral hemodynamics were measured using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and performance was measured using response time, accuracy, and gait speed.Results: Repeated measures ANOVAs revealed decreased accuracy with increasing cognitive demands (p = 0.001) and increased dual-task accuracy costs (p < 0.001). Response times were faster during the single compared to dual-tasks during the SRT (p = 0.005) and NBK (p = 0.004). DNS gait speed was also slower in the dual compared to single task (p < 0.001). Neural findings revealed marginally significant interactions between dual-task walking and walking alone in the DNS (p = 0.06) and dual -task walking compared to the NBK cognitive task alone (p = 0.05).Conclusion: Neural findings suggest a trend towards increased PFC activation during continuous tasks. Cognitive and motor measures revealed worse performance during the discrete compared to continuous tasks. Future studies should consider examining different attentional demands of motor tasks.

show abstract

Hemodynamic and behavioral changes in older adults during cognitively demanding dual tasks

Abstract: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Cited by 17 publications

References 65 publications

Modifications in Prefrontal Cortex Oxygenation in Linear and Curvilinear Dual Task Walking: A Combined fNIRS and IMUs Study

Modifications in Prefrontal Cortex Oxygenation in Linear and Curvilinear Dual Task Walking: A Combined fNIRS and IMUs Study

Effect of treadmill walking on prefrontal cortex activation and dual-task performance in older adults

An fNIRS Investigation of Discrete and Continuous Cognitive Demands During Dual-Task Walking in Young Adults

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About