Developmental Neuromotor and Cognition Lab, School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria 3086, Australia.
Developmental Neuromotor and Cognition Lab, School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria 3086, Australia.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2020 Sep;197:104869. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2020.104869. Epub 2020 Jun 20.
Most daily-life ambulatory tasks involve dual tasking, for example, talking while walking. In children, the evidence supporting the effects of age on dual tasking is confounded by the difficulty of the cognitive task and lack of adjustment to suit individual cognitive abilities. To address this issue, the current study examined the effects of age, cognitive load, and executive functioning on the degree of dual-task gait interference across childhood and adolescence. We tested 120 typically developing children aged 6-11 years, adolescents aged 12-16 years, and young adults aged 18-25 years. Participants were asked to walk while performing a visuospatial working memory task at two levels of cognitive load (easy and difficult) adjusted to suit each participant's cognitive ability. Spatiotemporal characteristics and intra-individual variability of gait were measured using a GAITRite electronic walkway. Irrespective of the cognitive load level, children aged 6 to 11 years showed greater dual-task gait interference for selective spatiotemporal gait characteristics; however, the younger children showed a trade-off pattern in gait variability whereby they prioritized gait stability at the expense of cognitive performance. Our results also showed that age and working memory capacity were significant predictors of dual-task interference for a range of complementary gait parameters in the combined sample. Importantly, working memory capacity was part of a moderating relationship between age and dual-task gait interference. These findings emphasize the importance of dual-task prioritization strategies in younger children and highlight the role of individual differences in working memory capacity in performance in dual-task gait situations.
大多数日常生活中的活动都涉及双重任务，例如，边走路边说话。在儿童中，支持年龄对双重任务影响的证据受到认知任务的难度以及缺乏针对个体认知能力进行调整的影响。为了解决这个问题，本研究考察了年龄、认知负荷和执行功能对儿童期和青春期双重任务步态干扰程度的影响。我们测试了 120 名发育正常的 6-11 岁儿童、12-16 岁青少年和 18-25 岁的年轻成年人。要求参与者在执行视觉空间工作记忆任务的同时，根据每个参与者的认知能力，在两个认知负荷水平（简单和困难）下进行行走。使用 GAITRite 电子步道测量步态的时空特征和个体内变异性。无论认知负荷水平如何，6 至 11 岁的儿童在选择性时空步态特征上表现出更大的双重任务步态干扰；然而，年幼的儿童表现出步态变异性的权衡模式，他们以牺牲认知表现为代价优先考虑步态稳定性。我们的研究结果还表明，年龄和工作记忆能力是综合样本中一系列互补步态参数双重任务干扰的重要预测因素。重要的是，工作记忆能力是年龄和双重任务步态干扰之间关系的一个调节因素。这些发现强调了在年幼儿童中双重任务优先化策略的重要性，并突出了工作记忆能力个体差异在双重任务步态情况下表现的作用。
