HUMOV
1580
S0167-9457(13)00089-4
10.1016/j.humov.2013.07.013
The Authors
☆
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Does the walking task matter? Influence of different walking conditions on dual-task performances in young and older persons
Rainer
Beurskens
⁎
r.beurskens@hotmail.com
Otmar
Bock
Institute of Physiology and Anatomy, German Sport University, Cologne, Germany
Institute of Physiology and Anatomy
German Sport University
Cologne
Germany
⁎
Corresponding author. Address: Institute of Physiology and Anatomy, German Sport University, Am Sportpark Muengersdorf 6, 50933 Cologne, Germany. Tel.: +49 (221) 4982 7160; fax: +49 (221) 4982 6790.
Highlights
•
Dual-task costs are substantially larger when older people walk with a concurrent visually demanding task.
•
This is even more pronounced in challenging walking environments (e.g., narrow path).
•
Visual scanning of the environment becomes crucial when walking over difficult terrains.
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.
PsycINFO classification
2860
Keywords
Aging
Locomotion
Executive functions
Fall prevention
Dual-task
KBJ00000000001383
2015-01-12T18:40:33
S300.3
S300
S0167-9457(13)00089-4
10.1016/j.humov.2013.07.013
HUMOV
0167-9457
1580
FLA
NON-CRC
UNLIMITED
NONE
2013-09-12T00:00:00Z
01679457/v32i6/S0167945713000894/main.xml
92073
MAIN
JA 5.2.0 ARTICLE
FULL-TEXT
01679457/v32i6/S0167945713000894/main.assets/gr2.jpg
21843
IMAGE-DOWNSAMPLED
01679457/v32i6/S0167945713000894/main.assets/gr1.jpg
70509
IMAGE-DOWNSAMPLED
01679457/v32i6/S0167945713000894/main.assets/gr2.sml
3356
IMAGE-THUMBNAIL
01679457/v32i6/S0167945713000894/main.assets/gr1.sml
6367
IMAGE-THUMBNAIL
01679457/v32i6/S0167945713000894/main.pdf
601482
MAIN
1.7 6.4
DISTILLED OPTIMIZED BOOKMARKED
01679457/v32i6/S0167945713000894/main.raw
41540
S0167-9457(13)X0007-7
HUMOV
0167-9457
32
6
201312
1201
1512
S0167-9457(13)00089-4
10.1016/j.humov.2013.07.013
1456
1466
main.pdf
PDF
1.7