Department of Prevention and Rehabilitation in Physiotherapy, Federal University of Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil.
Department of Physiotherapy, Federal University of São Carlos, São Carlos, Brazil.
Int J Dev Neurosci. 2021 May;81(3):229-237. doi: 10.1002/jdn.10092. Epub 2021 Feb 13.
Postural stability requires attentional resources. Dual-task paradigms are used to investigate the attentional demand of the studied tasks. However, no studies have been conducted on the subjects' level of attention, analyzing its association with dual-task costs (DTC).
To evaluate the attentional level and DTC on postural sway and cognitive yield in children, adolescents, and young adults, investigating age-related differences, and to analyze if the participants' attention level is associated with DTC.
Postural sway and cognitive-yield of 30 children, 24 adolescents, and 32 young adults were assessed in a dual-task paradigm. We calculated DTC on postural sway and cognitive yield. Attention level was tested using Psychological Battery for Attention Assessment. We tested the association between DTC and attention level.
Young adults showed higher DTC on area and velocity of postural sway than children and adolescents. No differences in DTC on cognitive yield were found between the groups. Children showed lower attention levels than adolescents and young adults. Attention level was negatively associated with DTC on cognitive yield in young adults. Focused Attention is responsible for 24.4% of the variance in DTC on cognitive yield.
Age impacts DTC on postural stability, but not on cognitive performance. The smaller changes in sway found in children/adolescents when dual-tasking, potentially reflect less developed attentional levels and postural control, which make them performing postural tasks closed to their stability boundaries, and, therefore, make them prioritize stability protection more than adults. Similar DTC on cognition between groups may reflect an equalization of the chosen cognitive task at everyone's difficulty level. The lower attention levels of children may reflect an attentional system in development, with prioritization o postural tasks when dual-tasking to maintain stability. Although attention level increases throughout age, attention only predicted DTC on cognition. Better Focused Attention's levels predicted lower DTC on cognitive yield for young adults.
姿势稳定性需要注意力资源。双重任务范式用于研究研究任务的注意力需求。然而，尚无研究分析注意力水平与双重任务成本（DTC）之间的关系。
评估儿童、青少年和年轻人的姿势摆动和认知收益的注意力水平和 DTC，研究年龄相关差异，并分析参与者的注意力水平与 DTC 是否相关。
在双重任务范式中评估 30 名儿童、24 名青少年和 32 名年轻人的姿势摆动和认知收益。我们计算了姿势摆动和认知收益的 DTC。使用注意力评估心理电池测试注意力水平。我们测试了 DTC 与注意力水平之间的相关性。
与儿童和青少年相比，年轻人的姿势摆动面积和速度的 DTC 更高。各组之间在认知收益的 DTC 上没有差异。与青少年和年轻人相比，儿童的注意力水平较低。在年轻人中，注意力水平与认知收益的 DTC 呈负相关。集中注意力负责认知收益 DTC 变化的 24.4%。
年龄会影响姿势稳定性的 DTC，但不会影响认知表现。在进行双重任务时，儿童/青少年的摆动变化较小，这可能反映出注意力水平和姿势控制的发展不完善，这使他们在接近稳定性极限的情况下执行姿势任务，因此，他们更优先考虑保护稳定性而不是成年人。各组之间相似的认知 DTC 可能反映出每个人的困难程度下，选择的认知任务的均衡化。儿童的注意力水平较低可能反映出注意力系统的发育，在进行双重任务时，注意力优先于姿势任务以保持稳定性。尽管注意力水平随着年龄的增长而增加，但注意力仅预测认知的 DTC。对于年轻人，更好的集中注意力水平预测认知收益的 DTC 较低。
