Development and Pilot Testing of the Dual Task Screen in Healthy Adolescents

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Sports Medicine
• Rehabilitation

Background:

• Athletes with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) require careful monitoring for full recovery before returning to high-risk activities.
• Traditional assessments may lack sensitivity in detecting residual deficits post-mTBI.
• Dual-task paradigms show potential for identifying subtle impairments not evident in single-task evaluations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the feasibility and preliminary utility of the Dual Task Screen (DTS) in assessing cognitive-motor performance.
• To determine if the DTS can detect deficits in healthy adolescents that might indicate residual effects of mTBI.

Main Methods:

• A pilot study was conducted using the Dual Task Screen (DTS), a brief evaluation incorporating two dual-task paradigms.
• The DTS was administered to 32 healthy female adolescents in a community setting.
• Performance was assessed on motor tasks while participants simultaneously completed a distractor task.

Main Results:

• The DTS was administered in an average of 5.63 minutes.
• Every participant demonstrated poorer performance in dual-task conditions compared to single-task conditions on at least one motor task.
• These findings suggest the DTS can detect performance decrements under dual-task conditions.

Conclusions:

• The Dual Task Screen (DTS) is a clinically feasible and brief measure for assessing dual-task performance.
• The DTS shows potential for identifying subtle residual deficits in adolescents, meriting further investigation in mTBI populations.