Chan Wing-Nga, Tsang William Wai-Nam
Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China.
PLoS One. 2017 Dec 22;12(12):e0189800. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0189800. eCollection 2017.
Turning-while-walking is one of the commonest causes of falls in stroke survivors. It involves cognitive processing and may be challenging when performed concurrently with a cognitive task. Previous studies of dual-tasking involving turning-while-walking in stroke survivors show that the performance of physical tasks is compromised. However, the design of those studies did not address the response of stroke survivors under dual-tasking condition without specifying the task-preference and its effect on the performance of the cognitive task.
First, to compare the performance of single-tasking and dual-tasking in stroke survivors. Second, to compare the performance of stroke survivors with non-stroke controls.
Fifty-nine stroke survivors and 45 controls were assessed with an auditory Stroop test, a turning-while-walking test, and a combination of the two single tasks. The outcome of the cognitive task was measured by the reaction time and accuracy of the task. The physical task was evaluated by measuring the turning duration, number of steps to turn, and time to complete the turning-while-walking test.
Stroke survivors showed a significantly reduced accuracy in the auditory Stroop test when dual-tasking, but there was no change in the reaction time. Their performance in the turning-while-walking task was similar under both single-tasking and dual-tasking condition. Additionally, stroke survivors demonstrated a significantly longer reaction time and lower accuracy than the controls both when single-tasking and dual-tasking. They took longer to turn, with more steps, and needed more time to complete the turning-while-walking task in both tasking conditions.
The results show that stroke survivors with high mobility function performed the auditory Stroop test less accurately while preserving simultaneous turning-while-walking performance. They also demonstrated poorer performance in both single-tasking and dual-tasking as compared with controls.
行走时转身是中风幸存者跌倒的最常见原因之一。它涉及认知处理，并且在与认知任务同时进行时可能具有挑战性。先前关于中风幸存者行走时转身的双重任务研究表明，身体任务的表现会受到影响。然而，这些研究的设计没有涉及中风幸存者在双重任务条件下的反应，未明确任务偏好及其对认知任务表现的影响。
第一，比较中风幸存者单任务和双重任务的表现。第二，比较中风幸存者与非中风对照者的表现。
对59名中风幸存者和45名对照者进行听觉斯特鲁普测试、行走时转身测试以及这两个单任务的组合测试。认知任务的结果通过任务的反应时间和准确性来衡量。身体任务通过测量转身持续时间、转身步数以及完成行走时转身测试的时间来评估。
中风幸存者在双重任务时听觉斯特鲁普测试的准确性显著降低，但反应时间没有变化。他们在行走时转身任务中的表现，在单任务和双重任务条件下相似。此外，中风幸存者在单任务和双重任务时的反应时间都明显长于对照者，准确性也更低。在两种任务条件下，他们转身所需时间更长，步数更多，完成行走时转身任务所需时间也更多。
结果表明，具有较高运动功能的中风幸存者在保持同时行走时转身表现的情况下，听觉斯特鲁普测试的准确性较低。与对照者相比，他们在单任务和双重任务中的表现也较差。
