title: Gait transition dynamics are modulated by concurrent cognitive activity.
abstract: In tasks with two categorically distinct behavioral possibilities a person beginning with one option will typically switch to the other at a higher value of a control parameter in an ascending (increasing) sequence than in a descending (decreasing) sequence. For example, the switch from walking to running on an accelerating treadmill occurs at a higher speed than the switch from running to walking on a decelerating treadmill. The reported research posed the question of whether this variant of behavioral hysteresis was affected by concurrent cognitive activity. Participants walked or ran on a treadmill with a constant acceleration or deceleration while counting backwards by sevens or ones, or not counting. The degree of hysteresis, the difference between walk-to-run and run-to-walk transition speeds, increased with cognitive difficulty. Specifically, the increased hysteresis was shown to be due to lower run-to-walk transition speeds for the more difficult concurrent cognitive tasks. These results support the hypothesis that cognitive load occupies attentional resources that contribute to triggering human gait transitions.
authors.affiliation: Center for the Ecological Study of Perception and Action, Department of Psychology, University of Connecticut, 406 Babbidge Rd, Storrs, CT, 06269, USA. mohammad.abdolvahab@uconn.edu.
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abdolvahab
mesh_terms: D000054:Acceleration; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005684:Gait; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D012420:Running / Q000502:physiology*; D016138:Walking / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Dual-task methodology; Dynamical systems; Gait transition; Hysteresis