title: Does the walking task matter? Influence of different walking conditions on dual-task performances in young and older persons.
abstract: Previous literature suggests that age-related deficits of dual-task walking are particularly pronounced with second tasks that require continuous visual processing. Here we evaluate whether the difficulty of the walking task matters as well. To this end, participants were asked to walk along a straight pathway of 20m length in four different walking conditions: (a) wide path and preferred pace; (b) narrow path and preferred pace, (c) wide path and fast pace, (d) obstacled wide path and preferred pace. Each condition was performed concurrently with a task requiring visual processing or fine motor control, and all tasks were also performed alone which allowed us to calculate the dual-task costs (DTC). Results showed that the age-related increase of DTC is substantially larger with the visually demanding than with the motor-demanding task, more so when walking on a narrow or obstacled path. We attribute these observations to the fact that visual scanning of the environment becomes more crucial when walking in difficult terrains: the higher visual demand of those conditions accentuates the age-related deficits in coordinating them with a visual non-walking task.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Physiology and Anatomy, German Sport University, Cologne, Germany. Electronic address: r.beurskens@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Rainer
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Beurskens
authors.forename: Otmar
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Bock
mesh_terms: D000058:Accidental Falls / Q000517:prevention & control; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging; D001288:Attention; D003654:Deceleration; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D005684:Gait; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009048:Motor Skills; D004856:Postural Balance; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011930:Reaction Time; D012931:Social Environment; D016138:Walking; D016474:Weight-Bearing; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: 2860; Aging; Dual-task; Executive functions; Fall prevention; Locomotion