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Effects of motor fatigue on walking stability and variability during concurrent cognitive challenges.

ABSTRACT: Cognitive-motor interference, a negative influence on the performance of one or both tasks, is manifested when simultaneously performing a cognitive and a motor task. Motor fatigue reduces the ability of generating a required force level. However, little is known about the effects of motor fatigue on the cognitive-motor dual-tasking performance, an important capability during our daily lives. This study investigated how motor fatigue affects dual-task walking performance. Eighteen healthy younger adults walked on a treadmill under three different conditions: walking only, walking while receiving the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT) or a modified Stroop test before and after a lower-extremity fatiguing exercise. We computed dynamic margins of stability (MOS), step and joint kinematic variability, and short-term local divergence exponent (LDE) of the trunk motion. We found that subjects had similar values of short-term LDE during all conditions, indicating that local stability was not affected by the motor fatigue or dual-task conditions. Compared to the baseline, subjects had significantly greater mean MOS after the fatiguing exercise by walking with greater step length and width while having significantly greater gait variability. In contrast, subjects walked with similar mean MOS but significantly less gait variability during the dual-task conditions, indicating that subjects used different adaptive strategies when walking with motor fatigue and during dual-task conditions. There were no significant differences in the number of errors for the two cognitive tests before and after the fatiguing exercise. The current findings demonstrate that motor fatigue does not affect cognitive but motor performance in younger adults.

SUBMITTER: Kao PC

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6062111 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Effects of motor fatigue on walking stability and variability during concurrent cognitive challenges.

Kao Pei-Chun PC Pierro Michaela A MA Booras Konstantina K

PloS one 20180726 7

Cognitive-motor interference, a negative influence on the performance of one or both tasks, is manifested when simultaneously performing a cognitive and a motor task. Motor fatigue reduces the ability of generating a required force level. However, little is known about the effects of motor fatigue on the cognitive-motor dual-tasking performance, an important capability during our daily lives. This study investigated how motor fatigue affects dual-task walking performance. Eighteen healthy younge ...[more]

PMID: 30048551

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Project description:The evidence supporting the effects of age on the ability to coordinate a motor and a cognitive task show inconsistent results in children and adolescents, where the Dual-Task Effects (DTE) - if computed at all - range from either being lower or comparable or higher in younger children than in older children, adolescents and adults. A feasible reason for the variability in such findings is the wide range of cognitive tasks (and to some extend of motor tasks) used to study Cognitive-Motor Interference (CMI). Our study aims at determining the differences in CMI when performing cognitive tasks targeting different cognitive functions at varying walking pathways. 69 children and adolescents (boys, n = 45; girls, n = 24; mean age, 11.5 ± 1.50 years) completed higher-level executive function tasks (2-Back, Serial Subtraction, Auditory Stroop, Clock Task, TMT-B) in comparison to non-executive distracter tasks [Motor Response Task (MRT), TMT-A] to assess relative effects on gait during straight vs. repeated Change of Direction (COD) walking. DT during COD walking was assessed using the Trail-Walking-Test (TWT). The motor and cognitive DTE were calculated for each task. There were significant differences between 5th and 8th graders on single gait speed on the straight (p = 0.016) and the COD pathway (p = 0.023), but not on any of the DT conditions. The calculation of DTEs revealed that motor DTEs were lowest for the MRT and highest for the TWT in the numbers/letters condition (p < 0.05 for all comparisons). In contrast, there were cognitive benefits for the higher-order cognitive tasks on the straight pathways, but cognitive costs for both DT conditions on the COD pathway (p < 0.01 for all comparisons). Our findings demonstrate that DT changes in walking when completing a secondary task that involve higher-level cognition are attributable to more than low-level divided attention or motor response processes. These results specifically show the direct competition for higher-level executive function resources important for walking, and are in agreement with previous studies supporting the cognitive-motor link in relation to gait in children. This might be in line with the idea that younger children may not have adequate cognitive resources.

Project description:BackgroundMost of older adults' falls are related to inefficient balance recovery after an unexpected loss of balance, i.e., postural perturbation. Effective balance recovery responses are crucial to prevent falls. Due to the considerable consequences of lateral falls and the high incidence of falls when walking, this study aimed to examine the effect of a concurrent cognitive task on older adults' balance recovery stepping abilities from unannounced lateral perturbations while walking. We also aimed to explore whether cognitive performance accuracy is affected by perturbed walking and between task trade-offs.MethodsIn a laboratory-based study, 20 older adults (> 70 years old) performed the following test conditions: (1) cognitive task while sitting; (2) perturbed walking; and (3) perturbed walking with a concurrent cognitive task. The cognitive task was serial numbers subtraction by seven. Single-step and multiple-step thresholds, highest perturbation achieved, 3D kinematic analysis of the first recovery step, and cognitive task performance accuracy were compared between single-task and dual-task conditions. Between task trade-offs were examined using dual-task cost (DTC).ResultsSingle-step and multiple-step thresholds, number of recovery step trials, number of foot collision, multiple-step events and kinematic recovery step parameters were all similar in single-task and dual-task conditions. Cognitive performance was not significantly affected by dual-task conditions, however, different possible trade-offs between cognitive and postural performances were identified using DTC.ConclusionsIn situations where postural threat is substantial, such as unexpected balance loss during walking, balance recovery reactions were unaffected by concurrent cognitive load in older adults (i.e., posture first strategy). The study was approved by the Helsinki Ethics Committee of Soroka University Medical Center in Beer-Sheva, Israel (ClinicalTrials.gov Registration number NCT04455607 , ID Numbers: Sor 396-16 CTIL; 02/07/2020).

Project description:A stable walking pattern is presumably essential to avoid falls. Stability of walking is most accurately determined by the short-term local dynamic stability (maximum Lyapunov exponent) of the body centre of mass. In many studies related to fall risk, however, variability of step width is considered to be indicative of the stability of the centre of mass during walking. However, other footfall parameters, in particular variability of stride time, have also been associated with increased risk for falling. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the association between short-term local dynamic stability of the body centre of mass and different measures of footfall variability. Twenty subjects performed unperturbed walking trials on a treadmill and under increased (addition of 40% body weight) and decreased (harness system) demands to stabilise the body centre of mass. Association between stability of the centre of mass and footfall parameters was established using a structural equation model. Walking with additional body weight lead to greater instability of the centre of mass and increased stride time variability, however had no effect on step width variability. Supported walking in the harness system did not increase centre of mass stability further, however, led to a significant decrease of step width and increase in stride time variability. A structural equation model could only predict 8% of the variance of the centre of mass stability after variability of step width, stride time and stride length were included. A model which included only step width variability as exogenous variable, failed to predict centre of mass stability. Because of the failure to predict centre of mass stability in this study, it appears, that the stability of the centre of mass is controlled by more complex interaction of sagittal and frontal plane temporal and spatial footfall parameters, than those observed by standard variability measures. Anyway, this study does not support the application of step width variability as indicator for medio-lateral stability of the centre of mass during walking.

Dataset Information

Effects of motor fatigue on walking stability and variability during concurrent cognitive challenges.

Publications

Effects of motor fatigue on walking stability and variability during concurrent cognitive challenges.

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