Measures of postural control and mobility during dual-tasking as candidate markers of instability in Huntington's disease
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 18, 2025
Evaluating Postural Control and Lower-extremity Muscle Activation in Individuals with Chronic Ankle Instability
Published on: September 18, 2020
Lisa M Muratori1, Lori Quinn2, Xueyao Li2
1Department of Physical Therapy, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794-8201, United States of America.
Insights
Huntington
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Motor Control
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Individuals with Huntington's disease (HD) exhibit dual-task impairments.
- Limited data exists on how varying postural and cognitive demands affect dual-task performance in HD.
- Identifying optimal markers for motor-cognitive interference in HD is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of altered postural and cognitive loads on dual-task performance in individuals with HD.
- To determine the most sensitive measures for assessing motor-cognitive interference in HD.
Main Methods:
- Forty-three individuals with HD and 15 healthy controls (HC) performed single and dual cognitive-motor tasks.
- Tasks included walking, standing balance (varying surfaces), and seated cognitive tests (Stroop, SDMT, DKEFS Sorting).
- APDM Opal sensors quantified postural sway and motor task completion times.
Main Results:
- Individuals with HD showed significantly greater increases in standing postural sway under dual-task conditions and altered support surfaces compared to HC.
- Both groups experienced gait performance decline during the TUG cognitive task, with a more pronounced effect in the HD group.
- The HD group exhibited a higher dual-task motor cost, though both groups responded similarly to increasing condition complexity.
Conclusions:
- Standing postural sway is a more sensitive indicator of instability than gait speed changes, especially during dual-tasking in HD.
- The TUG cognitive task effectively measures dual-task walking performance deficits in HD.
- Findings support distinct static and dynamic postural control mechanisms in HD dual-tasking and offer insights into motor-cognitive impairments.
Background:
Individuals with Huntington's disease (HD) have impairments in performing dual-tasks, however, there is limited information about the effects of changing postural and cognitive demands as well as which measures are best suited as markers of underlying motor-cognitive interference.
Methods:
Forty-three individuals with HD and 15 healthy controls (HC) completed single tasks of walking (Timed Up & Go (TUG), 7 m walk), standing (feet together, feet apart and foam surface) and seated cognitive performance (Stroop, Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT), Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (DKEFS) Sorting test) and dual cognitive-motor tasks while standing (+ Stroop) and walking (+ DKEFS, TUG cognitive). APDM Opal sensors recorded measures of postural sway and time to complete motor tasks.
Results:
Individuals with HD had a greater increase in standing postural sway compared to HC from single to dual-tasks and with changes to support surface. Both groups demonstrated a decrease in gait performance during the TUG cognitive, however, this difference was greater in people with HD compared to HC. While those with HD showed a greater dual-task motor cost compared to HC, both groups behaved similarly as condition complexity increased.
Conclusions:
Standing postural sway is a more sensitive marker of instability than change in standard gait speed, particularly under dual-task conditions. The more complex TUG cognitive is a sensitive measure of walking dual-task performance. The results of this study provide insights about the nature of motor-cognitive impairments in HD and provide support for a distinction between static and dynamic postural control mechanisms during performance of dual-tasks.
