TY - JOUR
T1 - The influence of cognitive load and walking speed on gait regularity in children and young adults
AU - Schaefer, Sabine
AU - Jagenow, Danilo
AU - Verrel, Julius
AU - Lindenberger, Ulman
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - The dual-process account of sensorimotor-cognitive interactions postulates that easy cognitive tasks can lead to performance improvements in the motor domain (e.g., an increased stability while walking or balancing) across the lifespan. However, cross-domain resource competition can lead to performance decrements in motor tasks when the concurrent cognitive task is very difficult, and older adults have shown performance decrements in their motor functioning under such circumstances. Resource limitations are particularly pronounced not only in old adulthood, but also in childhood. The current study investigates the relationship of walking speed and cognitive load on walking regularity in 7- and 9-year olds and young adults, with 18 participants in each group. Participants were walking on a treadmill at their preferred speed, and with speeds that were 30% faster and 30% slower than preferred. Regularity of lower-body coordination was operationalized as the residual variance of principal component analyses performed on the data of a motion analysis system. All age groups showed a more regular gait with increasing walking speed. Young adults' gait regularity was not influenced by cognitive load, whereas children showed a U-shaped relationship of cognitive load and walking regularity, with the highest regularity when performing an easy cognitive task. It can be concluded that children are also influenced by cross-domain resources competition in challenging cognitive-motor dual-task situations.
AB - The dual-process account of sensorimotor-cognitive interactions postulates that easy cognitive tasks can lead to performance improvements in the motor domain (e.g., an increased stability while walking or balancing) across the lifespan. However, cross-domain resource competition can lead to performance decrements in motor tasks when the concurrent cognitive task is very difficult, and older adults have shown performance decrements in their motor functioning under such circumstances. Resource limitations are particularly pronounced not only in old adulthood, but also in childhood. The current study investigates the relationship of walking speed and cognitive load on walking regularity in 7- and 9-year olds and young adults, with 18 participants in each group. Participants were walking on a treadmill at their preferred speed, and with speeds that were 30% faster and 30% slower than preferred. Regularity of lower-body coordination was operationalized as the residual variance of principal component analyses performed on the data of a motion analysis system. All age groups showed a more regular gait with increasing walking speed. Young adults' gait regularity was not influenced by cognitive load, whereas children showed a U-shaped relationship of cognitive load and walking regularity, with the highest regularity when performing an easy cognitive task. It can be concluded that children are also influenced by cross-domain resources competition in challenging cognitive-motor dual-task situations.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84926169978&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.gaitpost.2014.10.013
DO - 10.1016/j.gaitpost.2014.10.013
M3 - Journal articles
C2 - 25455434
AN - SCOPUS:84926169978
SN - 0966-6362
VL - 41
SP - 258
EP - 262
JO - Gait and Posture
JF - Gait and Posture
IS - 1
ER -