Cognitive-Motor Interference Heightens the Prefrontal Cortical Activation and Deteriorates the Task Performance in
Swati M Surkar1, Rashelle M Hoffman2, Regina Harbourne3
1Department of Physical Therapy, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina; Department of Physical Therapy, Munroe Meyer Institute of Genetics and Rehabilitation, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska.
Insights
Children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy (HCP) show increased prefrontal cortex (PFC) activity and poorer task performance compared to typically developing (TD) children, especially during dual-task conditions. This suggests attentional resource limitations in HCP children due to brain differences.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Rehabilitation Science
Background:
- Children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy (HCP) often exhibit motor and cognitive challenges.
- Understanding prefrontal cortex (PFC) activation patterns during demanding tasks is crucial for assessing cognitive function in HCP.
- Dual-tasking requires simultaneous processing of motor and cognitive information, potentially highlighting differences in attentional resource allocation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare prefrontal cortex (PFC) activation and task performance in typically developing (TD) children versus children with HCP.
- To investigate differences during single-task versus dual-task conditions.
- To explore the relationship between PFC activity and task performance in children with HCP during dual-tasking.
Main Methods:
- A prospective, comparative study involving 12 TD children and 9 children with HCP.
- Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) was used to measure PFC oxygenated hemoglobin concentration.
- Participants performed a shape-matching task on stable and dynamic surfaces, assessing task performance via shapes matched, dual-task cost, and reaction time.
Main Results:
- Children with HCP demonstrated significantly greater PFC activation, fewer shapes matched, and slower reaction times than TD children in both single- and dual-task conditions.
- These performance and activation differences were amplified during the dual-task condition, with HCP children showing a greater dual-task cost.
- Increased PFC activation during dual-tasking in HCP children strongly correlated with higher dual-task costs (r=0.77, P=.01).
Conclusions:
- Children with HCP exhibit heightened PFC activity when performing dual tasks, likely due to shared attentional resources between motor and cognitive demands.
- Cognitive-motor interference appears exacerbated in HCP children, potentially linked to underlying structural and functional brain alterations from early developmental insults.
- These findings highlight potential neurocognitive differences in attentional processing and resource allocation in children with HCP.
Objective:
To compare the prefrontal cortex (PFC) activation and task performance during single- and dual-task conditions between typically developing (TD) children and children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy (HCP).
Design:
A prospective, comparative design.
Setting:
Research laboratory.
Participants:
Participants (N=21) included 12 TD children (age, 6.0±1.1y) and 9 children with HCP (age, 7.2±3.1).
Interventions:
Not applicable.
Main Outcome Measures:
PFC activation was assessed by measuring the concentration of oxygenated hemoglobin while the children performed a shape-matching task with their more affected arm while sitting on a stable (single task) vs dynamic surface (dual task). The task performance was assessed with the total number of shapes matched, dual-task cost, and reaction time (RT).
Results:
For both conditions, the children with HCP exhibited greater PFC activation, matched a fewer shapes, and had slower RT than the TD children. These differences were accentuated during the dual-task condition and the dual-task cost was greater. An increase in the PFC activation during the dual-task condition was tightly correlated with a higher dual-task cost in children with HCP (r=0.77, P=.01).
Conclusions:
Children with HCP appear to have a heightened amount of PFC activity while performing a dual task. The greater cortical activity may be a result of the finite attentional resources that are shared between both the motor as well as cognitive demands of the task. The cognitive-motor interference is likely exacerbated in children with HCP because of the structural and functional brain changes as a result of an insult to the developing brain.
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