Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 13, 2026
Revised and Neuroimaging-Compatible Versions of the Dual Task Screen
Published on: October 5, 2020
Executive dysfunction following a mild traumatic brain injury revealed in early adolescence with locomotor-cognitive
Isabelle Cossette1,2, Marie-Ève Gagné1,3, Marie-Christine Ouellet1,3
1a Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Rehabilitation and Social Integration (CIRRIS) , Centre intégré universitaire de santé et de services sociaux de la Capitale-Nationale (CIUSSS-CN) , Quebec City , Canada.
Objective:
To compare gait parameters between children in early adolescence (EA) with and without a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) during dual-task walking (DTW).
Methods:
Children in EA with mTBI (n = 14; six girls) were compared to those without (n = 13; five girls) while walking in different combinations of obstacle avoidance and cognitive dual-tasks. Gait speed and fluidity and their related dual-task costs (DTC) were analysed along with foot clearance and proximity to the obstacle.
Results:
No group effects were found for gait speed, proximity or clearance, but were found for fluidity DTC, specifically during the dual Stroop task and when crossing the deeper obstacle. There were also group differences for fluidity during the planning of obstacle avoidance for the narrow obstacle combined with the verbal fluency task and the deep obstacle with no cognitive task. Finally, gait fluidity showed group differences across unobstructed dual-task situations.
Conclusions:
Gait fluidity may be a more sensitive variable than gait speed for revealing executive dysfunction following mTBI in EA. Assessing DTW in level walking also seems to show a potential to reveal executive dysfunctions in this age group. These results provide direction for future research on clinical assessment using DTW post-mTBI in adolescents.
