Effects of a secondary task on obstacle avoidance in healthy young adults |
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Authors: | Ka-Chun Siu Robert D Catena Li-Shan Chou Paul van Donkelaar Marjorie H Woollacott |
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Institution: | (1) HPER Biomechanics Laboratory, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha, NE 68182, USA;(2) Motion Analysis Laboratory, Department of Human Physiology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA;(3) Motor Control Laboratory, Department of Human Physiology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA |
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Abstract: | Research on attention and gait stability has suggested that the process of recovering gait stability requires attentional
resources, but the effect of performing a secondary task on stability during obstacle avoidance is poorly understood. Using
a dual-task paradigm, the present experiment investigated the extent to which young adults are able to respond to a secondary
auditory Stroop task (requiring executive attentional network resources) concurrently with obstacle crossing during gait when
compared with performing unobstructed walking or sitting (control task). Our results demonstrated that as the level of difficulty
in the postural task increased, there was a significant reduction in verbal response time from congruent to incongruent conditions
in the auditory Stroop task, but no differences in gait parameters, indicating that these postural tasks require attention,
and that young adults use a strategy of modulating the auditory Stroop task performance while keeping stable gait performance
under the dual-task situations. Our findings suggest the existence of a hierarchy of control within both postural task (obstacle
avoidance requires the most information processing resources) and dual-task (with gait stability being a priority) conditions. |
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Keywords: | Attention Obstacle avoidance Dual-task paradigm Gait |
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