Subara-Zukic Emily, McGuckian Thomas B, Cole Michael H, Steenbergen Bert, Wilson Peter Henry
Healthy Brain and Mind Research Center, School of Behavioral and Health Sciences, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Behavioral Science Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands.
Front Psychol. 2024 Mar 6;15:1279427. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1279427. eCollection 2024.
Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) demonstrate deficits in predictive motor control and aspects of cognitive control compared with their typically developing (TD) peers. Adjustment to dynamic environments depends on both aspects of control and the deficits for children with DCD may constrain their ability to perform daily actions that involve dual-tasking. Under the assumption that motor-cognitive integration is compromised in children with DCD, we examined proportional dual-task costs using a novel locomotor-cognitive dual-task paradigm that enlisted augmented reality. We expect proportional dual-task performance costs to be greater for children with DCD compared to their TD peers.
Participants were 34 children aged 6-12 years (16 TD, 18 DCD) who walked along a straight 12 m path under single- and dual-task conditions, the cognitive task being visual discrimination under simple or complex stimulus conditions presented via augmented reality. Dual-task performance was measured in two ways: first, proportional dual-task costs (pDTC) were computed for cognitive and gait outcomes and, second, within-trial costs (p-WTC) were measured as the difference on gait outcomes between pre- and post-stimulus presentation.
On measures of pDTC, TD children increased their double-limb support time when walking in response to a dual-task, while the children with DCD increased their locomotor velocity. On p-WTC, both groups increased their gait variability (step length and step width) when walking in response to a dual-task, of which the TD group had a larger proportional change than the DCD group. Greater pDTCs on motor rather than cognitive outcomes were consistent across groups and method of dual-task performance measurement.
Contrary to predictions, our results failed to support dramatic differences in locomotor-cognitive dual-task performance between children with DCD and TD, with both groups tending to priorities the cognitive over the motor task. Inclusion of a within-trial calculation of dual-task interference revealed an expectancy effect for both groups in relation to an impending visual stimulus. It is recommended that dual-task paradigms in the future continue to use augmented reality to present the cognitive task and consider motor tasks of sufficient complexity to probe the limits of performance in children with DCD.
与发育正常（TD）的同龄人相比，患有发育协调障碍（DCD）的儿童在预测性运动控制和认知控制方面存在缺陷。对动态环境的适应取决于控制的两个方面，而DCD儿童的这些缺陷可能会限制他们执行涉及双重任务的日常行动的能力。基于DCD儿童的运动-认知整合受损这一假设，我们使用一种新颖的运动-认知双重任务范式（该范式采用了增强现实技术）来研究比例双重任务成本。我们预计，与TD同龄人相比，DCD儿童的比例双重任务表现成本会更高。
参与者为34名6至12岁的儿童（16名TD儿童，18名DCD儿童），他们在单任务和双重任务条件下沿着一条12米长的直线路径行走，认知任务是通过增强现实呈现的简单或复杂刺激条件下的视觉辨别。双重任务表现通过两种方式进行测量：第一，计算认知和步态结果的比例双重任务成本（pDTC）；第二，测量试验内成本（p-WTC），即刺激呈现前后步态结果的差异。
在pDTC测量中，TD儿童在双重任务下行走时增加了双腿支撑时间，而DCD儿童则提高了运动速度。在p-WTC方面，两组在双重任务下行走时都增加了步态变异性（步长和步宽），其中TD组的比例变化大于DCD组。跨组和双重任务表现测量方法中，运动结果而非认知结果上的更大pDTC是一致的。
与预测相反，我们的结果未能支持DCD儿童和TD儿童在运动-认知双重任务表现上的显著差异，两组都倾向于将认知任务置于运动任务之上。试验内双重任务干扰的计算揭示了两组对于即将到来的视觉刺激的预期效应。建议未来的双重任务范式继续使用增强现实来呈现认知任务，并考虑足够复杂的运动任务以探究DCD儿童的表现极限。
