Young adults who improve performance during dual-task walking show more flexible reallocation of cognitive resources:...

In young adults, pairing a cognitive task with walking can have different effects on gait and cognitive task performance. In some cases, performance clearly declines whereas in others compensatory mechanisms maintain performance. This study investigates the preliminary finding of behavioral improvement in Go/NoGo response inhibition task performance during walking compared with sitting, which was observed at the piloting stage.

Mobile brain/body imaging (MoBI) was used to record electroencephalographic (EEG) activity, 3-dimensional (3D) gait kinematics and behavioral responses in the cognitive task, during sitting or walking on a treadmill.

In a cohort of 26 young adults, 14 participants improved in measures of cognitive task performance while walking compared with sitting. These participants exhibited walking-related EEG amplitude reductions over frontal scalp regions during key stages of inhibitory control (conflict monitoring, control implementation, and pre-motor stages), accompanied by reduced stride-to-stride variability and faster responses to stimuli compared with those who did not improve. In contrast, 12 participants who did not improve exhibited no EEG amplitude differences across physical condition.

The neural activity changes associated with performance improvement during dual tasking hold promise as cognitive flexibility markers that can potentially help assess cognitive decline in aging and neurodegeneration.