Use of Motor Abundance in Young and Older Adults during Dual-Task Treadmill Walking
نویسندگان
چکیده
Motor abundance allows individuals to perform any task reliably while being variable in movement's particulars. The study investigated age-related differences in this feature when young adults (YA) and older adults (OA) performed challenging tasks, namely treadmill walking alone and while performing a cognitive task. A goal function for treadmill walking was first defined, i.e., maintain constant speed at each step, which led to a goal equivalent manifold (GEM) containing all combinations of step time and step length that equally satisfied the function. Given the GEM, amounts of goal-equivalent and non-goal-equivalent variability were afterwards determined and used to define an index providing information about the set of effective motor solutions relative to the GEM. The set was limited in OA compared to YA in treadmill walking alone, indicating that OA made less flexible use of motor abundance than YA. However, this differentiation between YA and OA disappeared when concurrently performing the cognitive task. It is proposed that OA might have benefited from cognitive compensation.
منابع مشابه
The Effect of Cognitive Training on Lower Limb Muscular Activity in Older Adults With Balance Impairment During Walking
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of two different approaches of dual-task training and executive training on lower limb muscular activity in older adults with balance impairment. Methods: This was a quasi-experimental study performed with the pre-test and post-test method. Thirty older adults (age= 73.8±4.6, height= 1.65±0.06, weight= 69.17±12.67) were randomly ass...
متن کاملThe Effect of Dual Task Interference on Gait in Aging: Role of Working Memory Components
The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of concurrent cognitive tasks activating phonological loop and visuospatial scratchpad of working memory on gait in older adults.12 older adults with the age range of 65-70 years performed walking trials in 3 counterbalanced testing conditions including single walking, walking while performing visuospatial task and walking while per...
متن کاملEffect of Different Cognitive Loads on Gait Stability in Younger and Older Adults
Purpose: As many older people fall during dual tasks, we aimed to examine the effect of different cognitive loads on learning gait stability in younger and older adults. Methods: 10 younger (Mean±SD age: 25.91±3.42 years) and 10 older adults (Mean±SD: 66.65±4.28 years) were healthy volunteers without a history of falls. They were asked to do three tasks on a treadmill with cognitive load (none...
متن کاملتأثیر دو شیوه تمرینی تکلیف دوگانه بر تعادل سالمندان: توانایی اختصاص توجه
Objectives: The inability to allocate attention to balance when performing concurrent tasks may cause the older adults to fall. Therefore, thisstudy aimed to investigate the effect of 2 types of dual-task training on the balance of older adults. Methods & Materials: This quasi-experimental study included 36 eligible older adults (aged>65 years) living in Kerman City, Iran. The s...
متن کاملSuccessful adaptation of gait in healthy older adults during dual-task treadmill walking.
Dual-task methods have been used to demonstrate increased prioritization of walking performance over cognition in healthy aging. This is expressed as greater dual-task costs in cognitive performance than in walking. However, other research shows that older adults can prioritize cognitive performance over walking when instructed to do so. We asked whether age-related cognitive prioritization wou...
متن کامل