Center for Applied Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, United States.
Department of Psychology, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, United States.
Percept Mot Skills. 2021 Feb;128(1):80-95. doi: 10.1177/0031512520972879. Epub 2020 Nov 16.
A growing body of research has shown that static stance control (e.g., body sway) is influenced by cognitive demands (CD), an effect that may be related to competition for limited central resources. Measures of stance control have also been impacted by postural demands (PD) (e.g., stable vs. unstable stances). However, less is known of any possible interactions between PD and CD on static stance control in populations with intact balance control and ample cognitive resources, like young healthy adults. In this study, among the same participants, we factorially compared the impact of PD with and without CD on static stance control. Thirty-four healthy young adults wore inertial measurement units (IMU) while completing static stance tasks for 30 seconds in three different PD positions: feet apart, feet together, and tandem feet. After completing these tasks alone, participants performed these tasks with CD by concurrently completing verbal serial seven subtractions from a randomly selected three-digit number. For two dependent measures, path length and jerk, there were main effects of CD and PD but no interaction effect between these factors. For all other stance control parameters, there was only a PD main effect. Thus, adding a cognitive demand to postural demands, while standing upright, may have an independent impact on stance control, but CD does not seem to interact with PD. These results suggest that young healthy adults may be less sensitive to simple PD and CD due to their greater inherent balance control and available cognitive resources. Future work might explore more complex PD and CD combinations to determine the boundaries under which young adults' resources are taxed.
越来越多的研究表明，静态站立控制（例如，身体摆动）受到认知需求（CD）的影响，这种影响可能与对有限的中央资源的竞争有关。姿势控制的测量也受到姿势需求（PD）（例如，稳定与不稳定的姿势）的影响。然而，对于具有完整平衡控制和充足认知资源的人群（例如年轻健康成年人），在静态站立控制中，PD 和 CD 之间可能存在相互作用的情况知之甚少。在这项研究中，我们在同一组参与者中，分别比较了 PD 和 CD 对静态站立控制的影响。34 名健康的年轻成年人在完成三个不同 PD 位置（双脚分开、双脚并拢和双脚前后排列）的 30 秒静态站立任务时佩戴惯性测量单元（IMU）。在单独完成这些任务后，参与者通过同时从随机选择的三位数字中连续减去七个数字来完成这些任务的 CD。对于路径长度和急动度这两个依赖指标，有 CD 和 PD 的主效应，但这些因素之间没有交互效应。对于所有其他站立控制参数，只有 PD 主效应。因此，在直立站立时，将认知需求添加到姿势需求中可能会对站立控制产生独立影响，但 CD 似乎不会与 PD 相互作用。这些结果表明，年轻健康的成年人可能由于其更大的固有平衡控制和可用的认知资源，对简单的 PD 和 CD 不太敏感。未来的工作可能会探索更复杂的 PD 和 CD 组合，以确定年轻人资源被消耗的界限。
