Interacting effects of cognitive load and adult age on the regularity of whole-body motion during treadmill walking.

Full Abstract

We investigated effects of concurrent cognitive task difficulty (n-back) on the regularity of whole-body movements during treadmill walking in women and men from 3 age groups (20-30, 60-70, and 70-80 years old). Using principal component analysis of individual gait patterns, we separated main (regular) from residual (irregular) components of whole-body motion. Proportion of residual variance (RV) was used as an index of gait irregularity. The gait in all age groups became more regular (reduced RV) upon introduction of a simple cognitive task (1-back), relative to walking without a concurrent cognitive task. In contrast, parametrically increasing working memory load from 1-back to 4-back led to age-differential effects, with gait patterns becoming more regular in those 20-30 years old, becoming less regular in those 70-80 years old, and showing no significant effects in those 60-70 years old. Our results support the dual-process account of sensorimotor-cognitive interactions (O. Huxhold, S.-C. Li, F. Schmiedek, and U. Lindenberger, 2006), with age-general effects of internal versus external attentional focus and age-specific effects of resource competition with increasing cognitive task difficulty.

Author information

Author/s: Verrel, Julius (J); Lövdén, Martin (M); Schellenbach, Michael (M); Schaefer, Sabine (S); Lindenberger, Ulman (U);

Affiliation: Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany. verrel(-atsign-)mpib-berlin.mpg.de

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Psychology and aging (Psychol Aging), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-Mar; vol 24 (issue 1) : pp 75-81

Dates: Created 2009/03/17; Completed 2009/05/11;

PMID: 19290739, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 5/11/2009, IMS Date: )

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