Postural control and cognitive task performance in healthy participants while balancing on different support-surface configurations.
Postural control during normal upright stance in humans is a well-learned task. Hence, it has often been argued that it requires very little attention. However, many studies have recently shown that postural control is modified when a cognitive task is executed simultaneously especially in the elderly and in the presence of pathology. This study examined postural control modifications when a cognitive task of varying difficulty levels is added. Postural stance difficulty was also varied. Results from this study suggest that a generalized capacity interference may occur due to the larger interference found with the addition of a cognitive task in the more novel and difficult postural task. Because the performance of the cognitive task was tapered by a speed-difficulty trade-off, it was not possible to determine whether a change in the level of difficulty of the cognitive task occurred and if it would produce larger dual-task interference.
Dault
M C
MC
Department of Kinesiology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada.
Geurts
A C
AC
Mulder
T W
TW
Duysens
J
J
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D004856:Postural Balance; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis