Department of Sport, Health Sciences and Social Work, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, OX3 0BP, UK.
Exp Brain Res. 2023 Jun;241(6):1623-1631. doi: 10.1007/s00221-023-06627-4. Epub 2023 May 6.
Cognitive dual tasks alter gait of younger and older adults and recent research has demonstrated that they also influence gaze behaviour and standing postural control. These findings suggest that age-related changes in cognitive and gaze function might increase fall risk in older adults. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect cognitive and visual dual tasks on the gait and gaze behaviour of younger and older adults. Ten older and ten younger adults walked for 3 min on a treadmill at preferred walking speed under three conditions, single task, cognitive and visual dual task conditions. Gait dynamics were measured using accelerometry and gaze behaviour was measured using wearable eye-trackers. Stride time variability and centre of mass (COM) motion complexity increased in dual-task conditions in older adults but had no difference for younger adults. Dual tasks had limited effect on gaze behaviour; however, visual input duration was greater, and visual input frequency and saccade frequency were lower in older than younger adults. The gaze adaptations in older adults may be the result of slower visual processing or represent a compensatory strategy to suppress postural movement. The increase in gait COM motion complexity in older adults suggests the dual tasks led to more automatic gait control resulting from both cognitive and visual tasks.
认知双重任务改变了年轻和年长成年人的步态，最近的研究表明，它们还会影响注视行为和站立姿势控制。这些发现表明，认知和注视功能的年龄相关变化可能会增加老年人的跌倒风险。本研究的目的是确定认知和视觉双重任务对年轻和年长成年人步态和注视行为的影响。十名年长和十名年轻成年人在跑步机上以自己的舒适速度行走 3 分钟，在单任务、认知和视觉双重任务条件下进行。使用加速度计测量步态动力学，使用可穿戴眼动追踪器测量注视行为。在双重任务条件下，年长成年人的步时变异性和质心（COM）运动复杂性增加，但年轻成年人没有差异。双重任务对视动行为的影响有限；然而，年长成年人的视觉输入持续时间更长，视觉输入频率和扫视频率更低。年长成年人的注视适应可能是由于视觉处理速度较慢所致，或者代表了一种抑制姿势运动的补偿策略。年长成年人步态 COM 运动复杂性的增加表明，双重任务导致了更多的自动步态控制，这是由于认知和视觉任务的双重作用。
