The Effect of Two Cognitive Tasks on the Ability of Narrow-Path Walking for the Young and Old Adults

兩種不同認知測驗對年輕人及老年人狹窄步道行走能力的影響

卓瓊鈺(Chiung-Yu Cho) ； 廖婉君(Wan-Jun Liao)

《物理治療》 33卷4期 (2008/08) Pp. 209-218

摘要

Background and purposes: Choosing an appropriate cognitive task for a dual task situation is critical for balance assessment. Few studies have tried to explore whether the type of cognitive task matters for gait changes, especially for narrow path walking. This experiment was aimed to examine whether the subjects would change their fast walking speed for the dual task, narrow path trials. The effect of two cognitive tasks on the narrow path walking ability was also investigated. Methods: Fifteen young and fifteen healthy old adults were recruited from the Tainan, Taiwan area. Two walking path conditions (wide path fast walking vs narrow path fast walking) and two cognitive tasks (arithmetic task and animal recitation task) combination were encountered. Dual task related gait changes were evaluated. Results: Narrow path made our subjects walk slower and lower their cadence when they had to walk and perform an arithmetic task simultaneously (p＜.05). Two cognitive tasks affected gait parameters differently, especially for the old adults (p=.005). Conclusions: Narrow path walking might increase the physiological arousal and it also required more resource of attention. Two cognitive tasks affected gait parameters differently might be due to the arithmetic task depending on working memory which is directly related to executive functions.

關鍵字

注意力分割 ； 走路 ； 步態 ； 狹窄步道 ； 雙重作業

並列摘要

Background and purposes: Choosing an appropriate cognitive task for a dual task situation is critical for balance assessment. Few studies have tried to explore whether the type of cognitive task matters for gait changes, especially for narrow path walking. This experiment was aimed to examine whether the subjects would change their fast walking speed for the dual task, narrow path trials. The effect of two cognitive tasks on the narrow path walking ability was also investigated. Methods: Fifteen young and fifteen healthy old adults were recruited from the Tainan, Taiwan area. Two walking path conditions (wide path fast walking vs narrow path fast walking) and two cognitive tasks (arithmetic task and animal recitation task) combination were encountered. Dual task related gait changes were evaluated. Results: Narrow path made our subjects walk slower and lower their cadence when they had to walk and perform an arithmetic task simultaneously (p＜.05). Two cognitive tasks affected gait parameters differently, especially for the old adults (p=.005). Conclusions: Narrow path walking might increase the physiological arousal and it also required more resource of attention. Two cognitive tasks affected gait parameters differently might be due to the arithmetic task depending on working memory which is directly related to executive functions.

並列關鍵字

Divided attention ； Walking ； Gait ； Narrow path ； Dual task