Campolina Alice Brochado, Machado Nathália Laísa Rodrigues, Mazoni Alysson Fernandes, Andrade Valéria, Vaz Daniela Virgínia
Rehabilitation Sciences Graduate Program, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
Physical Therapy Baccalaureate Program, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
J Mot Behav. 2025;57(3):278-286. doi: 10.1080/00222895.2025.2472789. Epub 2025 Mar 13.
Walking, often performed automatically, allows for concurrent tasks like carrying objects, but dual-tasks can be challenging for the older adults. As previous search supports the benefits of external focus (EF) over internal focus (IF) of attention in motor tasks, this study investigated attentional effects on dual-task walking performance in young and older adults. A total of 84 healthy participants (42 young adults, 23.02 ± 2.91 years; 42 older adults, 23.02 ± 2.91 years) were instructed to walk while carrying a filled cup without spilling. Walking speed (comfortable, fast) and attentional focus (internal, external, none) were systematically varied. Inertial sensors captured gait speed, cadence, step duration, step length, and pelvis acceleration variability, while spillage was measured in grams. A generalized linear model with bootstrap resampling (α = 0.05) examined the effects of focus, walking speed, and group. Results indicated that young adults walked faster than older adults ( < 0.001), and speed decreased from single-task to dual-task ( = 0.003) and from fast walking to comfortable walking ( < 0.001). No significant effect of attentional focus was found ( ≥ 0.056). The interaction between focus and speed was significant only for spillage ( = 0.041), showing an unimportant difference in spillage between fast walking without focus instructions (398.85 g) and with external focus instructions (399.76 g) ( = 0.030). The interaction between focus and group was not significant ( ≥ 0.531). Overall, this suggests that dual task walking may not be significantly affected by attentional focus instructions.
行走通常是自动进行的，这样就可以同时进行诸如携带物品之类的任务，但对于老年人来说，执行双重任务可能具有挑战性。由于先前的研究支持在运动任务中外部注意力焦点（EF）优于内部注意力焦点（IF），因此本研究调查了注意力对年轻人和老年人双重任务行走表现的影响。共有84名健康参与者（42名年轻人，年龄23.02±2.91岁；42名老年人，年龄68.21±6.64岁）被要求在携带一个装满水的杯子且不洒出的情况下行走。行走速度（舒适、快速）和注意力焦点（内部、外部、无）被系统地改变。惯性传感器记录步态速度、步频、步长、步幅和骨盆加速度变异性，而洒出量则以克为单位进行测量。采用带有自抽样重抽样的广义线性模型（α = 0.05）来检验注意力焦点、行走速度和组别对实验结果的影响。结果表明，年轻人比老年人走得更快（P < 0.001），速度从单任务到双任务下降（P = 0.003），从快走变为舒适行走时也下降（P < 0.001）。未发现注意力焦点有显著影响（P ≥ 0.056）。注意力焦点和速度之间的交互作用仅对洒出量有显著意义（P = 0.041），表明在没有注意力焦点指示的快走（398.85克）和有外部注意力焦点指示的快走（399.76克）之间，洒出量的差异不显著（P = 0.030）。注意力焦点和组别之间的交互作用不显著（P ≥ 0.531）。总体而言，这表明注意力焦点指示可能不会对双重任务行走产生显著影响。
