Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 13, 2026
Motor Dual-Tasks for Gait Analysis and Evaluation in Post-Stroke Patients
Published on: March 11, 2021
Interference between cognition, double-limb support, and swing during gait in community-dwelling individuals
Prudence Plummer-D'Amato1, Lori J P Altmann, Andrea L Behrman
1Department of Physical Therapy, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115-5000, USA. pplummer@neu.edu
Background:
Dual tasking can interfere with activity after stroke.
Objective:
The authors examined the interactions between 3 different cognitive tasks and the swing and double-limb support (DLS) components of the gait cycle in community-dwelling individuals poststroke.
Methods:
Acquisition of cognitive and gait data were synchronized to study the cognitive-motor interference effects during the different phases of the gait cycle. Participants performed 3 different cognitive tasks in isolation and in combination with walking as well as a single walking task. Tasks were performed continuously for 3 minutes, generating 131 +/- 39 gait cycles per person for analysis for each walking trial. Data were analyzed for 8 participants 7.6 +/- 4.2 months poststroke.
Results:
A significant increase was found in the proportion of the gait cycle spent in DLS in dual-task walking because of an increased duration of the DLS phase associated with paretic weight acceptance. There was a significant dual-task effect on nonparetic swing duration: participants reduced the amount of time in paretic single-limb stance in the 3 dual-task conditions. Temporal asymmetry of gait did not increase significantly under dual-task conditions. Reaction times were not affected by whether the stimuli were present during the swing or DLS phase of the gait cycle.
Conclusions:
The findings from this pilot study provide evidence that cognitive-motor interference during gait may be influenced by the phase of the gait cycle, especially DLS involving paretic weight acceptance, which may affect community ambulators with hemiparetic stroke.
