title: Residual attentional capacity amongst young and elderly during dual and triple task walking.
abstract: Walking is considered an automatic function which demands little attentional resources. Thus a residual attentional capacity is available for a concurrent task (dual task). Minor age-related deficits in postural control may minimize the residual attentional capacity, however this may not be detected by a simple examination of the individuals gait performance. This study investigated the use of challenging dual task combinations to detect age related changes in gait performance. Eleven community-dwelling elderly (mean age 76 years) and 13 young subjects (mean age 26 years) participated in the study. The participants walked along a figure-of-eight track at a self-selected speed. The effect of introducing a concurrent cognitive task and a concurrent functional motor task was evaluated. Stride-to-stride variability was measured by heel contacts and by trunk accelerometry. In response to the cognitive task the elderly increased their temporal stride-to-stride variability by 39% in the walking task and by 57% in the combined motor task. These increases were significantly larger than observed for the young. Equivalent decreases in trunk acceleration autocorrelation coefficients and gait speed were found. A combination of sufficiently challenging motor tasks and concurrent cognitive tasks can reveal signs of limited residual attentional capacity during walking amongst the elderly.
authors.affiliation: Center for Sensory-Motor Interaction (SMI), Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark; University College North Jutland, Aalborg, Denmark. ul@hst.aau.dk
authors.forename: Uffe
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Laessoe
authors.forename: Hans C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Hoeck
authors.forename: Ole
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Simonsen
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Voigt
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015992:Body Mass Index; D005684:Gait / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D018579:Patient Selection; D004856:Postural Balance; D011187:Posture / Q000502:physiology*; D012016:Reference Values; D016138:Walking / Q000502:physiology*