Key result
Dual-task walking significantly increased cognitive workload in young adults compared to usual walking, as evidenced by increased prefrontal cortex oxygenation and higher subjective mental demand scores.
Why the study?
Few studies have combined neurophysiological and subjective measures to assess cognitive workload and perceived mental effort across walking tasks varying in complexity in young adults.
Cross-Sectional (n=25)
Randomized order of conditions
No
p-value: p=<0.001
Dual-task walking increases cognitive workload in young adults, with subjective measures providing complementary information to neurophysiological measures.
Subjective and fNIRS measures together better discriminate cognitive workload levels during dual-task walking; leaves open translation to older or clinical populations.
Background: Walking while performing a secondary task (dual-task (DT) walking) increases cognitive workload in young adults. To date, few studies have used neurophysiological measures in combination to subjective measures to assess cognitive workload during a walking task. This combined approach can provide more insights into the amount of cognitive resources in relation with the perceived mental effort involving in a walking task. Research Question: The objective was to examine cognitive workload in young adults during walking conditions varying in complexity. Methods: Twenty-five young adults (mean = 24.4 ± 5.4) performed four conditions: (1) usual walking, (2) simple DT walking, (3) complex DT walking and (4) standing while subtracting. During the walking task, mean speed, cadence, stride time, stride length, and their respective coefficient of variation (CV) were recorded. Cognitive workload will be measured through changes in oxy- and deoxy-hemoglobin (ΔHbO 2 and ΔHbR) during walking in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and perceived mental demand score from NASA-TLX questionnaire. Results: In young adults, ΔHbO 2 in the DLPFC increased from usual walking to both DT walking conditions and standing while subtracting condition. ΔHbO 2 did not differ between the simple and complex DT and between the complex DT and standing while subtracting condition. Perceived mental demand gradually increased with walking task complexity. As expected, all mean values of gait parameters were altered according to task complexity. CV of speed, cadence and stride time were significantly higher during DT walking conditions than during usual walking whereas CV of stride length was only higher during complex DT walking than during usual walking. Significance: Young adults had greater cognitive workload in the two DT walking conditions compared to usual walking. However, only the mental demand score from NASA-TLX questionnaire discriminated simple from complex DT walking. Subjective measure provides complementary information to objective one on changes in cognitive workload during challenging walking tasks in young adults. These results may be useful to improve our understanding of cognitive workload during walking.
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Hoang et al. (2020) conducted a cross-sectional in Healthy (n=25). Dual-task walking (simple and complex) vs. Usual walking was evaluated on Changes in oxy-hemoglobin (\Delta HbO2) in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and perceived mental demand score (p=<0.001). Dual-task walking significantly increased cognitive workload in young adults compared to usual walking, as evidenced by increased prefrontal cortex oxygenation and higher subjective mental demand scores.
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