Pham Trong, Suen Meagan, Cho Young-Hee, Krishnan Vennila
Office of Research and Economic Development, California State University Long Beach, Long Beach, CA 90840, USA.
Department of Psychology, California State University Long Beach, Long Beach, CA 90840, USA.
Sensors (Basel). 2024 Dec 5;24(23):7789. doi: 10.3390/s24237789.
This study investigated how various cognitive tasks and visual challenges affect dual-task walking costs (DTWC) in younger and older adults. Twenty younger adults (Mean = 22.25, SD = 3.04, 4 males) and eighteen older adults (Mean = 71.75, SD = 5.17, 7 males) completed single-task walking and dual-task walking. The dual tasks involved walking while performing either (a) serial-subtraction by 3s or (b) a Stroop task. Both single tasks and dual tasks were performed under both normal vision and peripheral-vision-loss conditions. Results showed no significant three-way interaction but two significant two-way interactions: DTWC for step-length was greater during Stroop compared to serial-subtraction, (a) more in older adults regardless of vision ( = 0.022) and (b) more under peripheral-vision-loss regardless of age ( = 0.033). In addition, DTWC for various gait parameters was greater under (a) Stroop compared to serial-subtraction, (b) peripheral-vision-loss compared to normal vision, and (c) older adults compared to younger adults. These findings suggest that, when engaging in a cognitively demanding task, older adults place greater emphasis on maintaining gait compared to younger adults, likely to offset the negative impacts of additional cognitive load and deteriorated vision. Future research should further examine how different cognitive tasks and visual challenges interact across age groups.
本研究调查了各种认知任务和视觉挑战如何影响年轻人和老年人的双任务步行成本（DTWC）。20名年轻人（平均年龄 = 22.25岁，标准差 = 3.04，4名男性）和18名老年人（平均年龄 = 71.75岁，标准差 = 5.17，7名男性）完成了单任务步行和双任务步行。双任务包括在执行以下任务之一时行走：（a）逐次减3或（b）斯特鲁普任务。单任务和双任务均在正常视力和周边视力丧失条件下进行。结果显示，不存在显著的三因素交互作用，但存在两个显著的双因素交互作用：与逐次减3相比，执行斯特鲁普任务时步长的DTWC更大，（a）无论视力如何，老年人的步长DTWC更大（P = 0.022），（b）无论年龄如何，周边视力丧失条件下的步长DTWC更大（P = 0.033）。此外，（a）与逐次减3相比，执行斯特鲁普任务时各种步态参数的DTWC更大，（b）与正常视力相比，周边视力丧失条件下的DTWC更大，（c）老年人的DTWC比年轻人更大。这些发现表明，在进行认知要求较高的任务时，与年轻人相比，老年人更注重维持步态，这可能是为了抵消额外认知负荷和视力下降的负面影响。未来的研究应进一步探讨不同认知任务和视觉挑战在不同年龄组之间是如何相互作用的。
