Department of Neuroscience, The Frederick J. and Marion A. Schindler Cognitive Neurophysiology Laboratory, The Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, 601 Elmwood Avenue, Rochester, NY 14642, USA; Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Rochester, 201 Robert B. Goergen Hall, Rochester, NY 14627, USA.
Department of Neuroscience, The Frederick J. and Marion A. Schindler Cognitive Neurophysiology Laboratory, The Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, 601 Elmwood Avenue, Rochester, NY 14642, USA.
Neuroimage. 2023 Jun;273:120098. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2023.120098. Epub 2023 Apr 8.
Combining walking with a demanding cognitive task is traditionally expected to elicit decrements in gait and/or cognitive task performance. However, it was recently shown that, in a cohort of young adults, most participants improved performance when walking was added to performance of a Go/NoGo response inhibition task. The present study aims to extend these previous findings to an older adult cohort, to investigate whether this improvement when dual-tasking is observed in healthy older adults. Mobile Brain/Body Imaging (MoBI) was used to record electroencephalographic (EEG) activity, three-dimensional (3D) gait kinematics and behavioral responses in the Go/NoGo task, during sitting or walking on a treadmill, in 34 young adults and 37 older adults. Increased response accuracy during walking, independent of age, was found to correlate with slower responses to stimuli (r = 0.44) and with walking-related EEG amplitude modulations over frontocentral regions (r = 0.47) during the sensory gating (N1) and conflict monitoring (N2) stages of inhibition, and over left-lateralized prefrontal regions (r = 0.47) during the stage of inhibitory control implementation (P3). These neural activity changes are related to the cognitive component of inhibition, and they were interpreted as signatures of behavioral improvement during walking. On the other hand, aging, independent of response accuracy during walking, was found to correlate with slower treadmill walking speeds (r = -0.68) and attenuation in walking-related EEG amplitude modulations over left-dominant frontal (r = -0.44) and parietooccipital regions (r = 0.48) during the N2 stage, and over centroparietal regions (r = 0.48) during the P3 stage. These neural activity changes are related to the motor component of inhibition, and they were interpreted as signatures of aging. Older adults whose response accuracy 'paradoxically' improved during walking manifested neural signatures of both behavioral improvement and aging, suggesting that their flexibility in reallocating neural resources while walking might be maintained for the cognitive but not for the motor inhibitory component. These distinct neural signatures of aging and behavior can potentially be used to identify 'super-agers', or individuals at risk for cognitive decline due to aging or neurodegenerative disease.
传统上认为，将行走与要求较高的认知任务结合起来会导致步态和/或认知任务表现下降。然而，最近的研究表明，在年轻成年人中，大多数参与者在执行 Go/NoGo 反应抑制任务时加入行走时，表现会提高。本研究旨在将这些先前的发现扩展到老年成年人队列，以研究这种在健康老年人中进行双重任务时的改善是否存在。使用移动脑/体成像（MoBI）记录脑电图（EEG）活动、3D 步态运动学和 Go/NoGo 任务中的行为反应，在 34 名年轻成年人和 37 名老年成年人中，分别在坐或在跑步机上行走时。发现行走时反应准确性的提高与年龄无关，与对刺激的反应较慢（r=0.44）以及在感觉门控（N1）和冲突监测（N2）抑制阶段，以及在抑制控制实施阶段（P3），与左外侧额前区域相关的行走相关 EEG 振幅调制（r=0.47）有关。这些神经活动变化与抑制的认知成分有关，被解释为行走时行为改善的特征。另一方面，独立于行走时的反应准确性，衰老与跑步机行走速度较慢（r=-0.68）以及在 N2 阶段，与左优势额（r=-0.44）和顶枕（r=0.48）区域以及在 P3 阶段，与中顶枕区域（r=0.48）相关的行走相关 EEG 振幅调制减弱有关。这些神经活动变化与抑制的运动成分有关，被解释为衰老的特征。在行走时反应准确性“反常”提高的老年人表现出行为改善和衰老的神经特征，这表明他们在行走时重新分配神经资源的灵活性可能保持在认知方面，但在运动抑制方面则不然。这些衰老和行为的独特神经特征可能被用于识别“超级老人”，即由于衰老或神经退行性疾病而导致认知能力下降的个体。
