Department of Psychology.
Department of Movement Science and Cognition.
J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform. 2020 Jun;46(6):629-642. doi: 10.1037/xhp0000736. Epub 2020 Mar 19.
Walking is human's most important locomotion. Until recently, walking was seen as an automated motor task that requires only minimal cognitive resources. However, recent studies indicate that walking requires higher-level cognitive processes such as executive functions. A different line of research suggests that executive functions consist of 3 core components: inhibition, switching, and updating. Combining these findings, the present study clarified which executive-function component is most essential for human walking. Applying a dual-task methodology, adults ( = 37) and 8- to 13-year-old children ( = 134) walked repeatedly across an electronic pathway while solving an inhibition, switching, and updating task. Both adults and children showed the largest gait alterations in the updating and switching task as opposed to inhibition. Likewise, their cognitive performance revealed the largest performance reductions from single- to dual-task situations in the updating task. Overall, our results highlight remarkable similarities in children's and adults' performance with updating working memory representations and switching between rule sets being the most essential cognitive processes for walking. These findings point to a general gait-cognition process. Results have important theoretical value and hold practical implications for creating effective intervention programs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
行走是人类最重要的运动方式。直到最近，行走被视为一种自动的运动任务，只需要最少的认知资源。然而，最近的研究表明，行走需要更高层次的认知过程，如执行功能。另一项研究表明，执行功能由 3 个核心成分组成：抑制、转换和更新。结合这些发现，本研究阐明了执行功能的哪个成分对人类行走最重要。应用双重任务方法，成年人（=37）和 8 至 13 岁的儿童（=134）在解决抑制、转换和更新任务的同时，反复走过电子通道。与抑制任务相比，成年人和儿童在更新和转换任务中表现出最大的步态变化。同样，他们的认知表现也表明，在更新任务中，从单一任务到双重任务的情况，认知表现的下降幅度最大。总的来说，我们的研究结果突出了儿童和成年人在更新工作记忆表现和在规则集之间转换方面的惊人相似之处，这表明更新工作记忆表现和在规则集之间转换是行走最关键的认知过程。这些发现指向了一种普遍的步态认知过程。研究结果具有重要的理论价值，并对制定有效的干预计划具有实际意义。（PsycInfo 数据库记录（c）2020 APA，保留所有权利）。
