Alteration of brain dynamics during dual-task overground walking

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Psychology
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• Cognitive-Motor Interference (CMI) studies often lack ecological validity due to static settings.
• Investigating CMI in naturalistic environments is crucial for understanding real-world cognitive and motor interactions.
• Virtual Reality (VR) and Mobile Brain/Body Imaging (MoBI) offer a promising approach for ecologically valid CMI research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate brain dynamics during dual-task overground walking in a virtual reality environment.
• To examine how cognitive-motor interference affects visual processing during combined walking and cognitive tasks.
• To establish a standardized VR paradigm for studying CMI in ecologically valid conditions.

Main Methods:

• Development of a dual-task walking scenario in VR combined with MoBI.
• Participants performed a visual discrimination task while standing (single-task) and walking overground (dual-task).
• Analysis of electrophysiological data, including P3 amplitude and Power Spectral Densities (PSDs).

Main Results:

• Walking did not affect performance on the visual discrimination task.
• A reduction in P3 amplitude and changes in PSDs were observed during dual-task walking.
• These findings indicate that walking impacts the processing of visual stimuli, even simple ones.

Conclusions:

• Overground walking in VR with an added cognitive task demonstrates cognitive-motor interference.
• The developed VR paradigm provides a standardized method to study CMI with controlled task complexity.
• Future research should explore more complex tasks to understand attention reallocation between cognitive and motor systems during active behavior.